tinytraveler

awaiting

2011-12-31T07:25:00.000-08:00

i've thought about not blogging anymore. and not using webshots. just facebooking. but i don't really do that. we'll see what happens in the new year. right now i'm sick. a girl at work was nice enough to stay and let me leave early last night. now i have all weekend off to get better. too bad i'm too sick to do anything else. maybe tomorrow. but that gives me time to catch up on my past. we had a really nice christmas this year. mom, although sick herself, was well enough to enjoy it this year and had put her magic mom touch on everything. i was the last to leave this year. dad and i went out orb hunting after dark and found a few bright guys out. i had a lovely bday the week before out with the girls in the family. we went to the salon for haircuts and out to lunch. then mom and i went to see the descendants. it was a pretty good movie. i have some great news. gareth got a job. it's a writing job with a two year training program. not sure the name of the company. it starts the end of january. very exciting. i decided to sign up for the math drug dosage class this semester. it's just eight weeks and doesn't start until the end of january too. it's online. i hope it's not too hard. my brothers and i got a snowboarding trip for christmas. we're going next week. it should be awesome if i'm not sick. i haven't gone since i broke my back. hope i can still keep up with the guys. i got to go horseback riding a couple months ago. the same girl at work has a horse and she let me ride. i hadn't ridden in ten years but it was like i'd never stopped. just like riding a bicycle. i got money to buy some riding supplies for christmas and hope to start taking lessons soon. an exciting year ahead.

awhile

2011-12-10T09:16:00.000-08:00

my blog has tried desperately to not let me log in but twenty minutes (and a few months) later here i am. it really hasn't been a fun few months but there's been some highlights i'll try and remember. i've been officially full time for some time now. and i'm on my way to an a in chemistry. all i need is a b on my final next week (which i should be studying for right now...). gareth still hasn't found a job. he's getting ready to be off unemployment so that's pretty scary. but having the place paid for makes that a little easier. i'm looking forward to having some free time after this class is over. not sure yet if i'm going to sign up for one next semester. i had a real problem with my lab teacher this semester. she was pretty terrible so i gave her a bad review. she read said review and started giving me really bad grades. so i had to go to the dean. got my grades reevaluated. didn't get much better of a score but at least it was fair. everyone here has stayed healthy with no major incidents. kitt even stopped peeing as much since i got her a plug in pheromone diffuser. probably the biggest event we've had was my brother's annual fund raiser. i'd actually found a cat the day before and brought it in to work. it was microchipped and we found the owner who was so grateful she gave me and my clinic's rescue a reward. i spend my reward on raffle tickets for the fund raiser so it went to helping more animals. yay. i'm really looking forward to enrolling in the vet tech program next year. not sure how that's going to work yet money-wise with going to school full time but i should at least be able to get loans. i've been working on getting caught up with my pics but i've only gotten to the point of when i last wrote. i had thanksgiving off and will have christmas off this year. it's the first time i've had them both off since i can remember. makes up for having to work both last year. hopefully i'll have more time soon to write and post pics.

balance

2011-09-15T09:41:00.000-07:00

my weeks have been quite busy lately. this chemistry is taking up most of my time now when i'm home. the first week we had 3 online quizzes due, a total of 86 questions, with most having 4-6 parts each. this past week was just one 20 question quiz but also our first actual lab that requires a prelab write up and post lab discussion. we had our first test yesterday too. it turned out to not be nearly as difficult as the quizzes so hopefully all my overstudying got me a good grade. it's just a lot of work and a lot to learn. i'm having a hard time balancing working full time and all the time class requires. i should find out soon if i'm actually full time at work. part of me hopes i am and part of me hopes they drop my hours when it comes to the 90 days where they have to start giving me benefits for my full time hours. i've said i want to be full time and i've worked the hours every week so it's up to them at this point whether they want to have me on or not. in the midsts of all this i ended up bringing home a puppy over the holiday weekend. i'd been in contact with a client at work for a few weeks who had a family member who had puppies she was trying to place. it didn't work out due to me not having the time to care for a puppy and colby not really liking her. it was sad to give her up though even after only having her a couple of days. she was super cute. we watched rio that weekend with her asleep on my stomach. the movie was entirely too silly. we also saw company men a couple weeks ago. it kinda hit home for gareth who's been unemployed for a while now. he had an interview a few weeks ago. a former coworker of his dad's gave him a recommendation but he didn't get the job. he's thinking of taking a technical writing certification program. i hope he finds something before his unemployment runs out in a couple of months. he's been stressed too but it's the opposite stress from what i've had so it's hard to sympathize with eachother. we wish we could help with the other's stresses. maybe balance the load a little. colby's had a mild skin infection for the past week. i brought him in to work over the weekend and had a skin scrape done to make sure it wasn't something picked up from the puppy. it's just allergies or sensitive skin we think from all the rain and resulting mold or blooms. it requires me to bring him to work to give him medicated baths every few days. today should be his last. he's scratching a lot less now and off the benedryl. poor pup. alright. i should go do something with my day off besides blogging and chemistry. perhaps i'll head outside.

quickly

2011-08-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

things got even crazier outside. hurricane irene passed by last night. just a lot of wind and rain here but i'm glad we weren't on the coast for it. then there was the earthquake earlier this week. we all felt that. nothing even got knocked down here but in louisa at my brother and sister's houses a lot did. everyone's ok though. just shook up. literally. gareth thought the dryer had fallen on it's side and colby burst into the laundry room when he opened the door ready to attack. haha. my first day at class was great... we didn't have labs the first week and i didn't know so i showed up for nothing. my actual first class wasn't so great. we dove right into scientific notations, coefficients and significant numbers. i had a hard time keeping up in class but was able to go over the lesson online after and catch up. i honestly don't remember anything from this class a decade ago. hence the d. we watched a few netflix this week. just go with it wasn't so good. rango was weird but pretty visually stunning. i'm sitting in front of our frence doors now watching the clouds pass by quickly above. it's turning out to be a nice and sunny (be it windy) day out.

alright

2011-08-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

i've been feeling discontent lately. especially after catching up with the daily coyote blog. she's spending the summer up on a mountain with her "family" of animals. i've been missing the great outdoors. it's been nice to spend my free mornings sitting in the yard having coffee with colby. and evenings if i'm home before dark playing outside with my boys. but we haven't gone anywhere since we've been here except places indoors. hopefully as it cools off we'll make more plans to be outside. i wish i'd started a garden when we moved in but it would have been hard to establish and thrive in the horrible heat we had. we've had some bad storms here lately. even a crazy swirling cloud above us after i got home the other day. i was awaken by lightning striking close by the other night and actually setting car alarms off. crazy stuff. indoors we've had some problems with our cable lately. we're thinking of getting rid of it all together. since signing up for netflix we realize we don't watch much of anything especially on cable anymore. i start chemistry class tomorrow. not really looking forward to having a busier schedule but i'll be alright.

animals

2011-08-11T09:08:00.000-07:00

not too much going on this week. i worked a lot the beginning of the week so now i don't go in until three pm. kinda makes for a long day but worth it for a short shift. we got to see the movies we wanted last weekend. cowboys and aliens took itself a little too serious but was still fun. rise of the planet of the apes was enjoyable but you could tell james franco didn't really enjoy making it. blue valentine was good but not as emotional was we'd expected. we saw some old friends from r'mond last night. they moved to nova this summer too. nice to know someone in the area. we had a nice dinner with them. colby got his monthly super deluxe bath yesterday. i brought home a bandana from work for him. kitt's still having her urination issues. i've tried a new litter box and litter and nothing's really helping. the foil didn't keep her away for long. it's frustrating. i'm glad we put the plastic down so she didn't ruin the carpet here. oh animals.

time

2011-08-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

more busy weeks for me. i don't know where the time goes. i'm lying on my stomach on the floor downstairs now. trying to stretch my back out. i'm constantly surprised at how physically and mentally difficult my new job is. i'm either on my feet or on the phone with my head cocked to the side. the mental part is not only working in a sometimes stressful and most of the time quite busy environment but also constantly learning how to do my job. i like it and i think i'm doing a good job. but it's pretty exhausting. i'm off today. yay. we just signed up for netflix so we're going to sit down and watch blue valentine today. i signed up for the chemistry class today. it was kinda a mess having to get transcripts sent and everything. but now i'm on my way. i went home this past weekend. it was my mom's bday and my brother's surprise 30th bday party. it was nice to see my family and some of my brother's old friends. we saw captain america a few weeks ago when it came out. it was really good. we want to see cowboys and aliens and the rise of the planet of the apes. too bad there's not enough time to do everything in my spare time. but i like to keep busy. so maybe we'll get to go.

busy

2011-07-20T16:40:00.000-07:00

it's been another good week. i've been working a lot. got off early today so i can be in early tomorrow to shadow in the kennel. i got to be in surgery and treatment this week to see what goes on. it was interesting and i got to talk to the owner about my past experience and future ambitions. i hope it all works out for me to move up there in the future. i still need to sign up for a chemistry class this fall. i had to take colby in to work with me today. we were out in the yard before i left and he had a bee in his mouth so i brought him in for observation. i got the bee though and they noticed there that it still had it's stinger on it so he didn't get stung. thank goodness. there was no charge to bring him in. and i got a free exam for my cat last week for her six month check up. she'd been going outside the litter box again and i took the vet's advice and took the top off the box. i also put foil where she was going and between the two she hasn't gone outside again. i hope that's solved the problem. gareth had his first job interview today. it turned out to not be a good job but at least he got some practice. and he signed up for unemployment so he'll be getting that soon. we went to see the final harry potter this weekend. it was a good ending to a fun series. we also had a nice dinner with all his family for his grandmother's bday. so it's been a busy week. goodnight.

happy

2011-07-10T17:17:00.000-07:00

things have gone well since i last wrote. the move was difficult but definitely worthwhile. we love our new place. colby loves all the space here. especially having his own yard. i got the job at the vets. it's a receptionist position. i like it so far. it's a pretty busy practice. especially coming off of the holiday weekend. i worked almost forty hours this week and i'm scheduled for the same next week. i'm happy i got the job. gareth's still looking but has a potential job through a friend he's going to see this week. my parents came up to visit today. i got my favorite olive garden meal. it was nice to see them. colby especially enjoyed their visit. he actually squealed with excitement. we're all pretty tuckered out now. it's been a long week. especially for me. but i'm happy here.

bumpy

2011-06-19T08:17:00.001-07:00

i'm sitting in my parents' garage right now. it's the second day of my yardsale. i've made $2 today. it rained all morning so i moved it inside. i'm guessing that's what's keeping people away today. only a few neighborhood kids have come by. i made $115 yesterday. but i spend about $50 on all the supplies. and a park ranger came by yesterday and gave me a $95 ticket for posting signs on park property. my mom said she'd pay the ticket for me. i'd be in the hole if she didn't. my brother made $150 yesterday for the bird rescue so that was helpful. his girlfriend and i made cookies and muffins and contributed by having an accompanying bake sale for the rescue. so it's been a semi-success. at least we're getting rid of a lot of things we don't need anymore. we got the rental townhouse i posted last. we're getting a moving truck tomorrow. it's been pretty hectic with packing and it's about to be even worse actually moving. at least gareth was left to finish getting things ready to go this weekend while i was doing the yardsale. this is the longest i've been away from colby though. i miss him pretty terribly. oh and gareth. the vets called me back and they want me to come in and shadow someone for a day the end of this week. so that's a good sign. things are coming together now. it's just been a bumpy road to get where we want to go.

saga

2011-06-11T13:23:00.000-07:00

we didn't get the house. and instead of pursuing our other option we're now waiting to see if we got a rental place today. i hope this will be the end of the housing saga. i had an interview at a vet's office yesterday. it sounded very promising. i hope to hear back from them monday. my nerves are pretty shot right now. it's the waiting that really gets to me. but there's nothing else i can do right now. we don't have any plans this weekend. gareth wants to see super 8 but i'm not sure if i'm up for it. x-men was pretty awesome. thor wasn't very good. the hangover 2 was fun but not great. i just found out that lola's getting adopted today. i'd already said my goodbyes but it's still sad to know she's gone. at least she's hopefully going to a good home this time. i'm having the yardsale next weekend. it should be profitable with other family members contributing and helping sell stuff. i hope the rain holds off but that it cools down for it. it's been too hot to do much of anything outside lately. and i'm just about done going through all my stuff inside here. i went out to my brother's sanctuary to help clean cages and aviaries this week. it'd been awhile since i'd been out to help so that was nice to do. i also got a nice haircut this week thanks to mom. her hairdresser did such a nice job fixing my last bad haircut. budd finally laid her last egg. i brought it in for show and tell at my last snip. i'm going to miss some of the life i had here. but i'm looking forward to the next step in our family's saga.

passes

2011-06-04T06:24:00.000-07:00

we haven't heard back about the house yet. i should know better by now. any time they've said we'll know anything by a certain time we haven't. but that still gives me hope we got it. if not we have another option now but i won't even go into it unless i have to. i hope i don't have to. i started sending out my resume this week. so i've got another thing i'll be anxiously awaiting a response to. i've gone to mom's to help with yardwork a couple of times now to make some extra money. and i've started planning my big yardsale. it will either be next weekend or the following one. it's been hard to plan anything not knowing when and where we're going. and i'm definitely a planner. even with my days off now i've been making plans. today we plan on going to see the new x-men movie. we're looking forward to all the big summer movies coming out this month and having time to actually see them. colby's had an upset stomach for the past week. not sure if it's the stress we're unintentionally passing on to him or the new rawhide we tried. i told the vet at wellness this week and she sold me some probiotics for him. that's what our regular vet always prescribes so it was a lot cheaper this way. besides that everyone else is doing well. budd's still got an egg. i hope this all passes soon. i got this shot at miller's farm. it was too pretty to pass.

soon

2011-05-28T06:47:00.000-07:00

things are all up in the air again. the place they said we got we didn't. at least not for some time. and we don't have time. even though it was advertised as a short sale already approved it still had to go back to the bank for their approval. so we went up and saw a bunch of places and ended up putting in an offer on a place we didn't even see. it looks nice enough on the internet and gareth's mom said it looked good to her in person. they're taking everyone's best offers now and we should know next week if we got it. if not we're really running out of time to figure something else out. so i hope this works out. i started writing this a few days ago. it's been a busy week and weekend for me. friday was my last day at bbuster. yay. i found out that day that my reputation over the years there has been that i'm outspoken to the point of annoyance. i'm glad to be known for being outspoken but it's too bad i'm also known as being annoying. oh well. it's not like i'm listing anyone there as a reference. there's no managers left i've worked more than a month for. tomorrow's my last day at the kennel. and i get paid time and a half today. i'll be sad to leave the dogs. but happy i won't be working there in this summer heat for long. we went to see the new pirates last week. unfortunately we saw it in 3d and could barely see half of it since it mostly takes place in the dark. we finally got new releases at bbuster and i got to see a few before leaving. the green hornet and the dilemma weren't very good. no strings attached was actually entertaining. i haven't sent my resume out yet since we don't know where we're going to be. i hope to have that and everything else figured out soon enough.

brink

2011-05-18T07:09:00.000-07:00

they accepted the offer on the house. it should be closed by june ninth. less than a month away. i'm looking forward to the fix up and hope we can get it all done before officially moving in. i've been watching hgtv and becoming inspired. i'm almost ready to send my resume out. i found half a dozen places within just a few miles to apply to. only one is actually hiring but most at least say they're always accepting applications. i got to take colby with me to work this past weekend. it's probably the last time he'll go there. he got to play with lola. i don't think it will be an option to get her any time soon. i can't believe she's still there though. budd's down to one egg left. there were eight all together. last time it was a total of six. her chin's healing well but slowly. i've gotten to watch some movies lately. bbuster hasn't gotten anything new for about a month now so nothing new for me to see. i'd never seen the pirates of the caribbean movies before. they were alright and entertaining but much too long by the end of the series. i'm not too excited to see the newest one coming out. we haven't been to the theaters in quite a while. gareth went to see the opening of thor though. he really liked it. i guess there's not a lot else going on again. i feel like i'm on the brink of a lot about to be going on.

eggs

2011-05-12T05:46:00.000-07:00

one decision has been made in the past week. i didn't get into school. a decade ago i didn't get a good enough grade in chemistry. if i'd never taken it i could just sign up for it as part of the program. it's kinda bs but i now have to take it before being accepted. maybe next year... there's been yet another twist in housing. gareth's aunt backed out of buying anything so now his mom is trying to buy us a townhouse in centreville. i saw it yesterday and it has great potential. she put in an offer and we're waiting to see if it's gone through. not to put all my eggs in one basket but i'm excited. again. i went home for mother's day and got a nice meal out with my family. we celebrated dad's bday early too. he's going on a rv adventure to rhode island for a few weeks. budd's been laying eggs for the past few weeks. there's been six so far. these were all laid in one night. i'm taking her in today to get an x-ray to see if there's any more and also to get her chin rechecked. i'm not sure how a turtle's skin's supposed to heal so i want a professional opinion on if it's healing correctly. not too much else going on. having some extra days off is pretty nice. i'm looking forward to june.

home

2011-05-08T19:07:00.001-07:00

i needed this

anything

2011-05-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

we're back from our vacation now. it was much needed and a lot of fun. i just finished uploading all the pics on webshots. it'll be a little while until i'm able to edit and caption them all. i go back to work tonight. i was going to be back at least volunteering yesterday but the clinic was cancelled. it was nice to have an extra day off. and in the past few weeks there's been a change in management at bbuster so now i'm not being scheduled all the days i'm available like i was before. so i have two more days off this week. i'm glad this is my last month here and there. we still don't really know what's going on with our housing situation. i haven't gotten my rejection letter from the school yet. and there's a house in annandale apparently that has been deemed pretty perfect. we weren't planning on being that far away from the school. but i have no idea if school's still an option this year. or if online might be an option next year. or anything. so a week away didn't help decide anything. but it was nice to not have to actively worry about all that. kitt's been better since the day after her episode. we decided to leave budd home and she's doing ok. the cut didn't get any worse but it still needs to be tended to now to get better. colby had an amazing time in florida. he did scratch up his paws and leg running around and jumping into and out of the pool though. i think he thinks it was worth it. i'm glad we all had a good time.

up

2011-04-21T06:32:00.000-07:00

it's been another stressful week. they're still having people come by to look at the apartment. but we haven't been harassed anymore about it's presentation. our future housing situation is completely up in the air right now. apparently gareth's aunt is a landlord who frequently purchases townhouses and rents them out. so right now she's looking for a place in centerville for us. but that wasn't so clear cut a week ago when we went up to sterling to look at houses. we found a great place with a nice yard but the trip was pointless because she doesn't want to buy in sterling... so we're giving it until we get back from florida to decide if this is actually going to happen or if we should be looking at rentals again. and we have no idea where to look ourselves at this point. i should have gotten my acceptance letter from the school by the end of last week and i didn't so now i'm waiting for my rejection letter by the end of the month to see if i've been wait-listed. if not i think i'm going to wait on school for another year. to find a job to qualify for the online program by june 15th is not only going to be hard to do but also not what i really want to do. so i guess once we figure out where we'll be living i'll just look for a job in that area full time and wait until next year to go to school. we've had pet issues this week too. kitt started peeing everywhere a couple of evenings ago and had bloody mucus in her urine. so we took her in right away and she got a shot of antibiotics and pain-killing pills for a possible uti. we're waiting to hear back from the lab the sample was sent to to make sure it's not something worse. hopefully she'll be off the pain killers by monday when we leave for florida. budd probably won't be as lucky. she got a cut on her chin over the weekend and it was getting worse so we brought her in this week. she was prescribed a scrub and ointment and needs to be out of her water tank for most of the day. she laid an egg in her dry tank last night. i had no idea she had more eggs... so she'll need an x-ray soon to see how many more she has. she'll probably need to board at the vets anyways while we're gone so her wound can be tended to. that's an expense we weren't expecting. we're hoping we don't have to cancel our trip again this year due to injuries. every thing's really up in the air at this point. and i don't like it.

together

2011-04-13T06:55:00.000-07:00

the stress of the summer has begun. they started showing our apartment last week. that means if we aren't able to be here to take colby out we have to put him in his crate the whole time we're gone. he must have been ok the one time we were gone and we've been here the other times they've come. including the other day when they called to say they were coming when they were on their way here. so we took him out but didn't really have a chance to pick up the place. and when the landlady called to say they were coming next she said to make sure to have the place picked up including no dirty dishes in the sink. she even said she knows there's not much we can do about the mess since we have so much stuff here but to make it as presentable as possible. this was reiterated in an email sent to all tenants saying if apartments weren't presentable we would be charged to have them made presentable. wow. sorry but i'm frustrated. we do have a lot of stuff but i'm a very clean and organized person and i've never thought of our place being that bad. they must have forgotten how disguesting the place was when we came to look at it. anyways. gareth's in nova today to look at two places. one i really like and one he really likes. we'll see if anything comes from it. as long as we're all together : ]

patience

2011-04-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

it's another nice day out today after some weird weather this week. i think i'll take colby to the park before wellness this afternoon. i haven't had a day "off" in over a week now. and i won't have one until next week. at least these are volunteer days and i got to sleep in today. yesterday at snip there were only three cats so i got out in just two hours. just in time to meet up with my dad who was in the area anyways and have a nice lunch together. this is gareth's last week at work. and tomorrow's his bday. we should get to spend the evening together at least. i can't wait to give him his present. seriously i tried to give it to him last night. he has much more patience than i. i finally finished the book i got from his parents for christmas yesterday. animals make us human by temple grandin. now i've started on the daily coyote. an artistic account of a girl who actually raised a coyote pup. it's a good one so far. not many movies worth mentioning lately. i did get to see the original tron on blu ray that was just released. it was pretty cheesy but interesting to see how the whole story began. and anything with the dude is worth the watch.

bundled

2011-03-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

it's turned back into winter now. it snowed yesterday morning and we're supposed to get more today. it was probably cold enough to snow on saturday at our shelter's event mardi paws. but we all bundled up and it was a really fun day. i brought colby and he had an amazing time. i think that's the most dogs he's seen at once. an old friend came to hang out too. she made the day even more fun. gareth got some terrible news yesterday at work. apparently the new company that owns bbuster now has suspended severence payouts. and he can't put in his two weeks to just quit because the store closes in two weeks. the only reason he's stayed on this long is because of the severence. and now he's not getting it. did i

say this was a bad company? i meant it's a horrible company. we did get our payout event at my store for our online drive. dinner at a steakhouse. can't complain about a free meal. i'll be getting another tonight. i think this is the first day gareth and i have had off together all month.

ready

2011-03-16T05:40:00.000-07:00

the weather can't seem to decide if it's winter or spring yet. we had a lovely weekend. on my day off i took colby to the dog park. it was the first time we'd gone since our injuries last year. he had a blast. on another day off my parents came to r'mond and i got to join them for a nice lunch at mom's favorite place carinis. now it's cloudy, cold and wet outside. a good day for giving colby a bath before wellness clinic tonight. not a lot else to do which is fine with me. i've gotten to see a few movies lately. two documentaries; countdown to zero and outrage. the first about the history and current status of nuclear weapons. the second about gays in government. both interesting. the first scary the second kinda sad. never let me go i thought was pretty good. gareth didn't think so especially since it had already been done twice. the second time in the island which got sued

by the original creator. gareth's been having a hard time at his closing store. the manager got another job and left with no one in charge. he's been working a lot and can't wait for the store to close in less than a month. all the other stores in our area are closed or in the process of closing now. so my store has been busier than ever and everyone coming in is annoyed about their store closing. it's a bad ending for both of us working for this bad company. i'm glad we're getting ready to move on.

antics

2011-03-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

i got this great shot of colby the other day after getting home from bbuster. apparently he's become bored with my antics. but i have not. we went home last weekend for a visit. it was the first time i brought colby since christmas. he had a great time until he ran into both neighbors' yards. no more off leash for him. mom seemed to enjoy our visit too. the surgeon officially declared her healed this week. we're all happy to hear that. gareth and i watched the oscars last weekend. the king's speech won big. i guess gareth and my dad were right about it being so good. i finally saw 127 hours. it's really good but really gets in your head. i got the book it's based on. we went to the borders that's closing and gareth bought us a bunch of stuff. the spay and neuter clinic was cancelled this week so i got a day off. we did have wellness last night and i always go visit the dogs at the kennel while i'm there. there's a bunch of new ones that should be posted on petfinder soon. maybe i'll get to take some pics.

wandering

2011-02-24T06:31:00.000-08:00

yesterday was colby's first adoptiversary. to celebrate we brought him to the "puppy store" and got him some goodies. the day before i'd taken him back to the shelter we got him from for a visit. they were thrilled to see him and he was absolutely ecstatic to see them. i told them that i was working at a shelter myself and applying for vet tech school. i gave them hugs and a donation. then we went to my shelter and he got microchipped. i hope it's never necessary but a good thing to have just in case. i watched the phoenix lights documentary about some strange lights that have been seen in arizona. i'd seen it years ago but after seeing my own strange lights i was reminded of it. now after seeing it again i know these were the same kind of lights i saw. what are these lights so many people have seen and even documented? i don't know if we really want to know but i'm certainly intrigued. the weather tunred back to winter this past week. we even got some flurries the other day. i think i'm one of the few people who actually enjoy winter but i'm always excited to see spring emerge. i'm really looking forward to what this year's warmer months will bring. a trip to florida and a whole new experience up north. i can't wait to have some time off work as well. my mind's been wandering today...

expensive

2011-02-16T04:43:00.000-08:00

i couldn't even sleep until seven today. gareth came to bed about an hour ago and that got colby whining at the door. i got about nine hours of sleep so i can't really complain. i'm just looking forward to the day we both have normal jobs with normal hours. we found out gareth's store is going to close in april. it's pretty convenient since he was planning on quitting around then anyways. and now he gets severance. i finally got everything for my school application. just putting the finishing touches on my essay and i'll take it to the post office in the next day or so. we've had a glimpse of the coming spring this week. i spent one of the warm (but windy) days cleaning out my car. it had passed inspection but some small things ended up costing almost four hundred dollars. colby's vet visit was almost three hundred. there goes my tax return. gareth took me out to dinner for valentine's day sunday night at olive garden. my favorite. and i got some more chocolates from him on monday. i'd just opened the ones i got for christmas. good thing i like chocolate. not a lot else going on here. yesterday and today are my days "off" volunteering. maybe i'll bathe colby before the day is through. that's about it since gareth will be sleeping until he goes to work tonight...

strange

2011-02-08T05:36:00.000-08:00

my mom finally got her wound vac off yesterday. it's healing nicely and doesn't look like she's going to need the other surgery. we're all very thankful she's finally had some good luck with the situation. i got to see her yesterday when i went back home for my dentist appointment. i've made this week my annual appointment week. colby's got his shots this afternoon and i'm going to get my car inspected. along with an overdue (no it hasn't been a year) oil change. it's nice to have a few days off this week even if i'm busy doing other things. i did my taxes the other day and will be getting a big chunk back from federal. i hope to put some of that away. it's been hard for me to save anything lately. i saw why while doing my taxes. even though i work more than ever now i'm making a lot less than i used to. isn't that ridiculous? i'm glad i have gareth to pick up the slack. so that gave him the authority to say no again last week when the dog i had wanted to bring home a few months ago came back to the shelter. apparently she had too many issues for the owner to deal with. the only issue i could see is that she came back overweight. gareth's promised me that if we get a place big enough, have jobs that pay enough and a schedule that gives us enough time we can get another dog after we move. i'm sure she won't still be around then but i understand where he's coming from. it's just sad to see her again and know i can't have her. isn't she adorable? something else strange happened the other day. i really think i saw a ufo. i've been checking out other videos from around the same time and there was definitely something strange in the sky. i don't know how no one else in r'mond saw it. i know it's not the best video but it was amazing to see in person.

started

2011-01-28T06:08:00.000-08:00

this week hasn't been too exciting. i've actually watched more movies than usual. the secretariat was exciting. nowhere boy wasn't what i expected but a good watch. crimson wing was interesting but a little long. never knew there was so much to a flamingo's life cycle. gareth and i have been spending the little time we get together watching how i met your mother. we got some snow the other day. had fun playing in it with colby. i got to take him to work with me yesterday. he had fun playing in what was left of the snow with the new lab mix daisy. while he's all tuckered out i still can't sleep past seven. it's cleaning day before i go to work though so it's good i got up early. i should really get started on all that now.

sleep

2011-01-19T05:10:00.000-08:00

mom's been home about a week now. they decided to wait on the surgery to see if she can heal on her own. so far she's doing well. dad's been her nurse since she was sent home with a vac on her chest and an iv. i'm going home tomorrow to take her out for a haircut. not sure how that's going to work with all that hooked up. hopefully she'll have a nice time out. yesterday was the first spay and neuter clinic since the beginning of last month. it was nice to have a bit of a break from that and wellness. i got my first letter of recommendation and documentation of my observation hours from the vet there. i hope to be getting the rest soon. it's due march first. we had five dogs adopted from the shelter this week. that's a record at least since i've been there. i got to do some baths. i'm sure the dogs appreciated it and are hopefully in happy new homes now. today was my one day to sleep in this week but i couldn't sleep past seven. as you can see everyone else got to sleep in at least a little.

full

2011-01-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

mom's back in the hospital. it's been almost a week. she got an infection in her chest and had to have another surgery to remove it. they're waiting now to see if she's going to need muscle from another part of her body put in her chest. we're all hoping she doesn't need another surgery. she's not too happy about the setback but she's doing well and we're all hoping for the best. it's supposed to snow today. it sleeted a little earlier but no snow yet. i'm going back home for a visit so i hope it holds off for now. my brother came out last week for a visit and took me out to eat at sticky rice. it was a nice meal and good to get to hang out with him. not much else going on but between work and visits my days are pretty full.

off

2011-01-02T14:46:00.000-08:00

i had to work every day this week. i'm really looking forward to having the next two days off. at least i got paid well. i got time and a half both new year's eve and day. i'm going on a shopping spree at walmart tomorrow with the gift card my parents gave me for my bday. gareth took me on a super spree for my xmas present. i got some new pants and shoes and some other things along the way. i managed to stay up until midnight on new year's eve. watched a few minutes of dick clark's rockin' eve and the ball dropping with gareth. his parents came to r'mond this week and took us out. we went to the cheesecake factory and saw true grit. it was a really good movie and a nice night. they met colby and loved him. some warm weather has come through and with it rain. so all the snow's gone and everything's turned to mud. definitely not as much fun for me or colby.

thanks

2010-12-26T16:40:00.000-08:00

my xmas was really nice. i'm writing this on my new laptop. thank you dad. i got a lot of great things. and got to hang out with my family. made it to xmas eve dinner at my sister's. she made the best veggie lasagna and had a bday cake for me and my brother. colby got to play with their dog and had a great time too. we woke up early and waited patiently for xmas to start. had a delicious brunch and opened everything just in time to leave for work at the kennel. it didn't start snowing until the last few hours we were there. it's still snowing. i had today off but poor gareth had to go to work in it. colby's had another blast playing in it. he's such a snow dog.

snow

2010-12-20T06:47:00.000-08:00

it has been a busy week but i started feeling better pretty quickly. i didn't miss work (i never do) even on our snow day. we got a few inches and i had to work at the kennel. ended up shoveling snow there for about an hour and teching that night. it was absolutely exhausting. the next day was my bday and it was a relaxing and fun day. i got an expensive haircut at the salon where i got a free haircut earlier this year when i donated my hair. then i got my first massage. it didn't help with all my back and shoulder pains as much as i'd like but it was nice. we went to maggianos for a fancy dinner then went to see tron. we both really liked the movie. i'm almost finished with all my christmas preparations. i gave gareth his presents last night. sandies, a scarf and his annual photo album. colby had a blast this week in the snow. i have to take him with me to xmas now since we're both going to be out of town but i think he's going to have great time. i'm really looking forward to spending the holiday with my family.

sickness

2010-12-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

i finally succumbed to sickness. i was home all week with my mom and felt fine but the day i came back for work i woke up sick. it was nice to be home with my mom and i'm glad i wasn't sick there. i spent the week starting the application process for the vet tech program. just to find out last night they completely redid the website and the process for applying this weekend. so i have to redo some of the things i've already done and figure out a new way to do other things i was in the process of doing already. i'm really frustrated but think i can still do it all right. and i'm going to call them tomorrow about one thing i don't think i can. ugh. after work yesterday i went to the volunteering activity i'd committed myself to at petsmart. it was the santa claws photo shoot. hence the silly pic here. it was fun but i'm glad to have the day off today. not looking forward to the busy week ahead. i hope i start feeling better soon.

someday

2010-12-01T09:26:00.000-08:00

it's officially december. this year has really flown by. a lot of things to be thankful for this season. unfortunately my mom wasn't feeling up to making it to thanksgiving dinner. so i went to see her at the house before i went to our dinner. she's doing better every time i see her. dinner with the rest of my family was nice but short. i had to leave early to make it to work at bbuster that night. but it was an easy shift that i got paid time and a half for. it was crazy working at the kennel this weekend. there were seventy dogs there to take care of and clean up after. it was hard work and i'm glad there were two techs on a shift. i'm going to be working my own shifts there this week. but i'm told i won't be getting a raise until at least next month. i took kitt to the vets at the beginning of last week. she'd been throwing up a lot lately. she did have an overgrowth of bacteria in her gi tract. the same thing that colby had last time i took him in. so they gave her antibiotics. but she wouldn't take them in her food so i had to squirt them down her throat. which she didn't take well. i gave her the last dose today. she's thrown up once since she started taking it. she'd lost three pounds in the last six months. which means she's not obese anymore. but there could really be something wrong going on. we signed up for pet insurance last week. twenty five dollars a month each for both of them to cover accidents and illness. after this past year we're not hoping to need it but think it's a good idea just in case. i got a chance to catch up on my pics this week. the new harry potter movie was enjoyable. nothing special by itself but it left us excited about the final one this summer. it will be nice to someday sit down and watch them all.

lovely

2010-11-23T06:56:00.000-08:00

looks like it's been a busy month for me. i didn't end up winning anything at my brother's event. it was a nice time for everyone and seemed to be a success. i'm glad to be a part of what he does. my mom was sad she couldn't go but she wasn't doing great at that point. she actually ended up back in the hospital a few days later. she was retaining fluid and it was in her lungs and heart. she got some blood transfusions and diuretics. they also found an irregularity in her heartbeat and she may need a pacemaker put in. but she's doing better at this point. i actually haven't seen her in a few weeks. my dad's going out of town in a few weeks though and i took off work to be home with her for a few days. in the midst of all this busyness i tried to add another thing to our list. a dog named lola. she would have been the perfect addition to our family. but we're not ready for another dog right now. gareth had to be the bad guy and say absolutely not. she wasn't at the shelter long and the lady who adopted her named her jenny. kinda crazy. i signed up for my part time benefits yesterday. i had to wait until they changed my status to part time to do so. i'm the one who noticed it was wrong and pointed it out to the higher ups. for me doing so they cut my pay. but once i start running my own kennel shifts i will get a raise there. not as much as i lost but it's something. i actually start assisting another tech tomorrow since it's such a busy week there. i worked my first closing shift at bbuster in months last night. it was weird to be up so late. and nice to sleep in so late today. this is my first day off in a while. gareth's off too. we're going to see harry potter tonight. looks like it's another lovely day out for us to enjoy.

lucky

2010-11-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

my mom went home on wednesday. i haven't seen her since tuesday. she's doing well but still in a lot of pain. gareth and i will see her today before going to my brother's dinner theater fund raising event. this is chrisi's donated terrarium for the silent auction. i'm excited to see what other items are up for auction. maybe i'll come home with something nice. it'll be nice to see everyone. i know mom is sad she can't go. i'm back to my busy schedule again. i've been doing physical therapy every week now for a month. my back's been much better since i started. i no longer wear my brace and i'm back to doing most everything i used to do. including everything around the house. it was nice to have a break from that for a while. and now i know that gareth knows how to do everything. so maybe he can keep doing some things. i know i'm lucky. he's so good to me.

heart

2010-10-31T16:12:00.000-07:00

my mom had to have open heart surgery to replace her aorta on thursday. it went well and she was moved out of icu today. it was pretty scary for our family to watch her go through that again. she had to have bypasses ten years ago and ended up bleeding internally so they had to go back in to fix it. it took her a long time to recover. so we're all hoping for the best this time around. it's been a pretty rough week for everyone. i was lucky enough to get some time off from work. first bbuster had put me on the schedule when i wasn't available. then to punish me they took me off the schedule entirely. so that worked out well. hhs said i could have the rest of the week off after i found out she needed surgery. i'm glad i work at a humane society. i went to their howl-o-ween event today. but i couldn't bring colby. i'd bathed and groomed him at work on monday and after that he was coughing all week. so i brought him to the vets friday and he may have a minor case of kennel cough. but i was told to keep him away from other dogs for two weeks. i'd already bought him a costume though so i came home and took some pics of him in it. i heart him.

momentum

2010-10-15T09:45:00.000-07:00

i'm actually at work right now. i've been left in charge for the next few hours. but there's not much to do unless dogs come in or go out for grooming or boarding. or if people come by to see the dogs. i took more pics. this time of mr belvidere and yoda. they're on the same website as the last ones. i went to see the new doc on mon. he said it's just the muscles i haven't been using and may have had damage to that are hurting now. apparently i should have been in physical therapy six weeks ago. so i started my once a week for a month therapy yesterday. it went pretty well. i got stretched and pushed in some painful ways. but i'm actually feeling ok today. partly i'm sure from the muscle relaxers the new doc prescribed... that was yesterday. i took colby to work with me today. we put a baby gate up and now i can keep him in the office with me. he did

pretty well and most everyone seemed to enjoy having him there. i've been taking some pics at the kennel too. i hope i can keep up my momentum. maybe it's just the muscle relaxers i'm feeling but i'm absolutely exhausted. i've never gone to bed so early like i am these days. tonight i'll be asleep by seven... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

helping

2010-10-06T07:40:00.000-07:00

i'm in the middle of my work-filled week but it hasn't been so bad so far. i'm actually off today so i got to sleep in but i'll be going in for the wellness clinic tonight if i'm feeling up to it. i was also off yesterday but had to get up early to help out with snip. i'm glad i went though because i was the only volunteer that showed up. so i got to do everything. it's nice to be useful for a good cause. i've also been taking pics of the new arrivals at the kennel. i took jake and carmen's here. this is the new puppy ginger in quarantine at the house. i've been able to hopefully help some birds too. my brother's having an event for project perry next month. i've been working on getting some great stuff for the silent auction. a gift certificate for a weekend of boarding at the hhs. a large terrarium from chrisi. and possibly a piece of art from gloria clifford. i'm really excited and hope the event is a success. gareth and i went to see the social network last week. it was pretty good but almost makes you not want to use facebook. he didn't do a review. he's been promoted to assistant manager at bbuster. that's the only way to get a raise there anymore. so i'm glad he's finally getting more of what he deserves. my manager's giving me a hard time about my availability now. i just hope they keep me on so i can keep my benefits. i've learned how important it is to have health insurance with everything lately.

busy

2010-09-29T06:52:00.000-07:00

it hasn't been a very exciting week but it's been a pretty busy one. this is my first day off since my last post and it's my only day off this week. next week's going to be even harder. i'll be working or volunteering every day. and starting tomorrow i'll be getting up even earlier to start learning the kennel tech part of the job. hopefully i'll be up to doing that soon. i got my records and xrays from the docs to bring to the new doc. so i was able to get a better shot of my fractures. i also caught up on the rest of my photos. i got this shot on my way to the hhs this week. soon i'll be seeing the sun rise on my rides. i don't know how dad did it for years and years. i'm already exhausted. i hope i'm able to keep up with everything. it's been raining the past few days so it's really feeling like fall. i guess it's a good reason to stay in today and take it easy.

experience

2010-09-22T09:26:00.001-07:00

i thought i'd written since that last post but i guess i've been too busy. i started my volunteer work with the hhs. they had their wellness clinic last week where i got to not only observe the vet and volunteers but also help fill vaccinations and learn about everything going on. yesterday was my first spay and neuter clinic. it was pretty intense to see my first surgery. but i was ok watching and actually got to prep the dogs by the end. it was a really good experience. i went out after the clinic and got my first scrubs shirt. i'm excited to get to wear it next time. not a lot else has been going on. it's been nice to only be at bbuster a couple days a week now. i'm a lot less stressed now even though i'm doing alot. i also ended up making an appointment at another orthopedist for my back. i'm supposed to be healed by the end of the month but i'm still in a lot of pain. so i'm hoping if there is something else wrong that it will be found and fixed by someone else. maybe i just haven't given myself the time and rest to heal right. gareth saw a movie a couple weeks ago i forgot to post. machete. i haven't taken many pics lately but here's one of a groundhog i saw at the hhs the other day.

hopeful

2010-09-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

it's been a pretty good week. i started at my new job yesterday. it's going really well. i like the people and the dogs. i'm learning quickly and it's pretty easy so far. i also get to mostly sit for now so that's been better than bbuster for my back. that should be beneficial in at least the last part of my healing process. i have a new ailment though. i think i have a mild case of poison ivy. i got a breakout of little bumps all on my leg the other day. luckily it hasn't spread elsewhere and i was able to treat it once i realized what it might be. i'm still not sure that's what it is. i've never had it before. i may have gotten it when i went out to louisa for labor day this week. i took colby out for a get together with my family. it was my brother's bday celebration and i made a cake. it was a nice day but perhaps i need to be more careful walking in the woods. my parents also headed out this week to yellowstone for an adventure. dad sent an email and it sounds like they're having a good time seeing all the wildlife. it actually started snowing there and some of the roads were closed. i wonder if they'll get to see any wolves. that would be the best part for me. maybe someday i'll make it out there myself. we've decided not to make plans to travel for this year. it's been enough to deal with everything around here without trying to go somewhere else. maybe that means we can make big plans for next year. i'll be hopeful.

ending

2010-09-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

i made it through the past week and and a half. it was exhausting. but at least i get a nice four day weekend off now. and i'm officially part time. i start at the hhs next weekend. and it looks like we have a plan now for moving to nova. it won't be for another year. but i'm excited to have an idea of something new to do. i got gareth to go with me to the docs the other day. the good news was there are no more breaks. the bad news is it's going to take at least another month to heal and for me to feel better. i've got my next appointment in two months and it should be completely healed by then. we took colby in for his six month appointment too. he's doing great now. i'm glad he's all better. i know i will be soon too. we saw our first sign of fall this week. a lovely tree turning to red. i'm glad to see summer ending.

ridiculous

2010-08-23T14:29:00.000-07:00

things may be a little better. but they're going to get a little harder. my manager's on vacation for the next week and a half. so i'm in charge. my introduction to that today was an employee changing his availability for this week. so i worked on finding someone to cover his shifts and called him to let him know i got it covered. and he tells me he can't do what i've changed it to. ridiculous. i put my two week notice in today to drop down to part time. i'm taking the job at the hanover humane society. they're giving me a desk job at first. i didn't get the job at the vets. but hopefully this will get me started going where i want to go. i don't really know. gareth and i talked last night about the possibility of moving to nova. if we did i could go to an actual campus and get my degree in two years instead of three. so who knows what i'll actually do. i just hope i do something soon. and i hope i eventually heal so i'm able to do things again. i finally got my disabilities note back from the doctor. it says i'm supposed to be sedentary at work. like that's possible. i have an appointment next week to see how i'm healing. and get more pain killers. i missed my sister and niece's bday celebrations yesterday. at least i got to hang out with gareth for an evening. he saw piranha last week. i saw something decent that comes out tomorrow. city island. and i'm almost through with the ken burns series on national parks i got for christmas. maybe by dropping down to part time i can take time off and go somewhere this summer. i could really use a vacation.

rough

2010-08-15T15:20:00.000-07:00

it's been a rough week. turns out disability only covers what i've already taken off. and i've been having a hard time getting through to anyone who can help at the doctors. my schedule at work has been a pain to make right. and i'm pretty much in constant pain through all this. to top it off today i was supposed to meet my parents in r'mond for dinner when i got off today. the person coming in to relieve me was an hour late because someone else said that was fine. and no one told me. so i missed dinner. i didn't hear back from the vets either. i'm pretty bummed about everything. but i need to get myself together and figure out what to do next. it's just not been easy for me. at least colby's doing better. he got the stitches out and is pretty much back to normal now. gareth got back monday night but has had to work every day since then. he works nights and i've been working mornings so we haven't seen much of each other anyways. he saw the extendables this week but they posted someone else's review. i did get a chance to catch up on my photos this week. i'd been trying to get my niece's old computer to work with my old hard drive for months and finally succeeded. but only got about a day worth of it working before it was broken again. that's all the complaining i have to do for now. hopefully this next week will be better.

rainbow

2010-08-07T16:43:00.001-07:00

everyone's doing better this week. which is good because gareth's out of town all weekend for a wedding. and i went back to work yesterday. i'd filed for disability monday and they waited until the last minute of the last work day of the week to call and leave me a message saying they needed more info. so i don't know if and when that will happen. i had some great news this week though. i got a call back for an interview from the vets where i'd most wanted to work. again i think it went well so hopefully i'll hear back from them the beginning of the week. we took colby back in monday to get the stitches and swelling looked at. they said everything looked good and the stitches can come out next week. poor pup's still wearing the cone and now he has pjs he wears to bed and when we're gone so he can't scratch the stitches. i have some good news about a pet. budd laid the last of the eggs this week. i'm quite happy that ordeal is over with. nothing else too exciting has happened. i did go back to f'burg on my last day off for a visit to the dentist. they didn't find anything really wrong. just a lot of staining since my last visit. at least they didn't have to do much scraping this time. there were a few storms while i was there and i got to see a nice rainbow on my way back. made for a nice ending.

hurting

2010-07-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

kinda a crazy week. first and worst colby hurt himself. he was running in the yard through the ivy and ran into one of the sharply cut off branches on a stump. he made the worst cries i've ever heard. i picked him up and ran upstairs where gareth was and we took him straight to the vets. they had to perform surgery to close the wound. it had even cut into the muscle. poor pup. i got out of work that night to help with him and was glad i did. he cried for hours. he's been ok since but has to wear the cone so he won't lick at it. he's spent a lot of time sleeping and looking sad. except of course when my dad came the day after to help with him while gareth was at work. he acted like his puppy self for a few hours. he gets the drainage tube out today and the stitches in another week. it's been scary and stressful for all of us. i ended up overexerting myself in that whole ordeal and when i went back to work yesterday felt absolutely awful. so i went to the after hours clinic again when i got off. they were able to give me the strong pain killers again and a note to take another week off work. i'm going to see the spine specialist again on monday to talk to him about going on disability. before all that craziness happened i had a really nice weekend. gareth took me out to olive garden. my favorite. and i went home for my mom's bday on sunday. colby had another awesome time swimming in the lake and it was nice to see my family. we finally got the new tv today. and they're supposed to come and fix the cable later. so i'm looking forward to vegging out for a little bit after not being able to for some time.

slow

2010-07-23T08:40:00.001-07:00

the appointment didn't go so well. i was hoping to hear that things were healing nicely and i could start doing more. instead they found two more broken bones and said i really needed to take it slow for another six weeks. and keep wearing the back brace. so that sucks. and that means i can't start at the kennel next month. but i did apply to a couple places for open vet assistant positions. one even took me around to see everything and meet everyone. the tech there said she did the distance learning program i'm going to apply to and now runs the classroom at john tyler where i'd be going. so i hope i made a good impression on everyone there. not much else has been going on. i did all that on my last day off and today will be another cleaning day with gareth's assistance. i think we're going to attempt to cut colby's nails again before bringing him back to the pet store. i really think we just need a table like they have there. we try and do it with him on the ground and he just squirms out of our grasp. kitt's not liking her new food. she keeps leaving it behind in the bowl after eating the old stuff. i've never seen such a fat picky cat. i think i'm going to try and mix it with canned food. that's what we've been doing with colby's when he's not interested. such picky pets. i think it's because they know i'll pander to them.

better

2010-07-17T14:24:00.000-07:00

i just checked my camera and see i've taken no new photos since last week. i have been busy doing things but again nothing too interesting. we did a major cleaning of the pets yesterday on our day off together. colby finally got a bath. i think we figured out what he's allergic to. grass. how silly is that. he hasn't been as itchy with the rain we've had. in my research on different foods though i did decide to upgrade both what i get for him and kitt. they were getting science diet but it's not the best quality for what you're paying for it. i'm surprised i wasn't on top of that before. so now they're on wellness. or in the process of switching to it. it's a little more but looks a lot better. we went to see inception last night. gareth had seen the midnight opening and loved it so he was immediately up for another viewing. i loved it too. he saw predators last week. that one wasn't so great. our tv stopped working this week. i think we've picked one out now. just trying to figure out where to get it and how to get it here. i have my doctors appointment this week. hopefully everything looks good. it's been feeling better but i'm definitely not completely back to normal yet.

bearable

2010-07-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

i went back to work on thursday. it's been much better with the back brace and taking the pain killers at work. i'm now in the middle of working six days in a row. so i hope it continues to be bearable. and that the pain killers last until my next appointment. or i'm no longer in pain. we decided not to go to the beach. by the time monday rolled around we realized there was so much to catch up on around the house we needed three days of not working to do it all. and colby had chewed at the base of his tail until it bled over the weekend so we had to take him to the vets on monday. turns out he might have allergies. and we have no idea what to. so we're in the process of switching his food and giving him beneadryl. he's doing better now. we finally got to see toy story three together. it's pretty intense. people were crying in the theater. i didn't cry but i did enjoy it. i had sent an email to the kennel i got the job at to tell them what was going on with my back over the weekend and hadn't heard back from them about it. so i called yesterday and they're willing to wait for my next appointment and for me to be feeling better to start. which also gives me more time to figure out what to do about bbuster. turns out they're closing two more stores in r'mond. we don't know which ones yet. i was supposed to go to the spca volunteer orientation this morning. i'd signed up months ago for it. but our power went out so my alarm didn't go off and i slept right through it. i probably needed the sleep though. and i'm sure i'll have lots of volunteer opportunities with the hanover humane society. so i'm not too worried about it. i haven't taken many pics lately since i haven't been doing anything interesting. i think this one sums that up.

broken

2010-07-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

so i went back to the doctors yesterday and found out i have a break in my spine. it's in the disc across from where it says 0mm. it's the triangle that points down. the tip of it is broken off. but it's aligned perfectly and should heal just fine. it's just been painful. especially after working three days in a row thinking i was just sore from muscle and joint pain. after a day off i was still in pain and decided to get it checked out. gareth's worked my shifts last night and today for me. and i just got someone to cover sunday. so i have a week now to recover. with pain killers and a back brace. hopefully we're still going to the beach on monday too. shouldn't be too stressful and i'm sure i'll be stir crazy by then. i'm hoping gareth brings me home some movies today. i watched best in show the other night. wasn't too impressed. maybe i wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. gareth saw the new twilight movie this week. apparently it's the best one of the series so far. doesn't mean it's actually good. i got some good news on the job search. at the beginning of the week i got a call back from the hanover humane society about the kennel tech position i applied for. i went in and they offered me the job by the time i left. i'm still thinking about it though. it would be a huge pay cut. only part time. no benefits. and a lot of physical labor. but it would be a great way to get into doing what i want to do. and i could still do bbuster part time and keep my benefits. so i might end up doing it. i'm just not in the best place right now to make a major decision. i have an appointment in three weeks to get another xray to see how i'm healing and meet with a spine specialist. hopefully i'll be doing just fine soon enough.

kicked

2010-06-26T09:54:00.000-07:00

i ended up in the er last night. while i was out at the barn i got kicked in the back by a horse. it was pretty terrifying. i fell to the ground and couldn't breathe for a minute. after that i thought i was ok. but on the way home i started having sharp pains whenever i moved my leg. so i had gareth drive me to the hospital. they did x-rays and didn't find anything broken or misaligned. they did a urinalysis and found a slight amount of blood which could indicate a problem with my kidneys. but sent me home on some strong pain killers and said to take it easy for a day or so to see if the pain subsides. i got out of opening today and i'm actually feeling much better now. the sharp pain isn't happening every time i move. i'm just really sore where i got kicked and apparently where i fell on my butt. i'm going to get my kidneys checked again tomorrow just to make sure everything's ok. and go to an orthopedist on monday if i'm still having the sharp pain at all. i'm seriously lucky though. it was a few inches from my spine. at least someone else was there in case it had been any worse. my poor parents were quite concerned after getting the call on my way home that i got kicked then calling as i was checking into the hospital. they called every hospital in r'mond before finding me to see how i was doing. i'm glad gareth was able to be there for me. i really needed him. i still don't know what made the horse kick me. i was just finishing up grooming her outside and turned to walk away when she turned too and just kicked. who knows. animals are unpredictable. on another bad note i was supposed to hear back from the doggie daycare place by the end of the week. she even said to call her if i hadn't heard back from her. so i called and left a message with someone there for her to call me back. she never did. i called back today and she's off so i left her a voicemail. i think she would have contacted me if she was really interested. i guess there's still a chance though. gareth went to see grown ups the night before. i'd tried to stay up to go with him but after opening that day i was asleep well before midnight. we did get to watch percy jackson and the olympians at home. turns out it's not worth watching. i did actually see something good. creation. the story of darwin. on another good note last weekend went really well. i was actually a decent help at the veggie fest for my brother's booth. i took lots of pics. and father's day at my parents' was nice. even though i'd shown up late thinking i was early. colby had a great time swimming with my nephew. they make a great playing pair. i took my other pets to the vets for their checkups this week. they're both ok but not great. kitt's white blood cell count has been slightly elevated these past two times which could be a sign of stress or infection. and budd still has the two eggs in the same exact spot the same exact size. so we're giving her until the end of the summer to lay them. if she doesn't i'm going to take her to a specialist in nova to get treated. i was at another doctor's earlier this week to get my moles checked out. one looked a little different than usual but i honestly don't usually look at them since they're on my back. so i don't really know how it normally looks. but the doctor said they all look normal and again to just monitor them. i'll try and do a better job at that. i don't want my body to fall apart. it's scary.

long

2010-06-18T14:24:00.000-07:00

i didn't get the job at petsmart. didn't even get a callback. when i called them they said the position had already been filled. but i still have good news. i applied the other night at the holiday barn doggie daycare. and already had an interview this morning. it seemed to go well so again i'm hoping i get a callback. i've been working six days straight to get this weekend off. i'm going to the veggie fest in r'mond tomorrow to help out at my brother's booth. then i get to bring colby home on sunday for father's day. i've been looking forward to this weekend all week. glad it's finally here. we're going to stay in tonight and get a pizza and maybe watch hot tub time machine. i'm sure it will be stupid but i'm not up for much more than that. gareth went to see toy story three last night. he said it was great. i hope we get a chance to see it together. i've started taking colby to the local dog park. he's been having a blast and i get to see some of the people from our walks and socialize a little myself.

pleasant

2010-06-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

this past week seems to have flown by. let me see if i can remember everything. i applied at petsmart's vet clinic banfield for a full time position as a pet nurse assistant (vet assistant). but i haven't heard back from them yet. it's the first job i've applied for that i actually want. so i'm hoping i at least get a callback. i had a great time out at the barn this week. got some awesome shots like this one. i went out to my brother's today for an open house and took a ton of pics. i also learned a lot from the volunteers there telling visitors about the birds. i'm glad i've been able to do more with the animals lately. gareth and i were invited to a couple's last night for dinner. they made a tofu stirfry and i was inspired to make my own tonight. it turned out pretty good. looks like i've found a new dish. gareth went to see the new karate kid the other night. seemed enjoyable but nothing special. we watched youth in revolt earlier this week. it was actually pretty funny and not entirely stupid. i was pleasantly surprised.

spinning

2010-06-04T20:15:00.001-07:00

only a week this time but it's been busy. on memorial day i went out to louisa for a cookout with my family. i got to see more family in the middle of the week when i went to king's dominion with my sister and her kids. we rode everything and survived the intense heat. they have a new ride that made me and my sister almost pass out. i still won't ride the drop zone despite her trying to persuade me. it was a fun few days. gareth's working six days this week so today was our day off together. we took colby to petsmart for a pawdicure. returned the dremel. i think that's a bad sign wanting to go into animal care and not being able to cut my own dog's nails. we got him a deshedder and got a ton of fur off him but i'm sure there's still more we'll see around the house. with all the summer storms starting to pass through we have gotten him going on the treadmill now. today he even hopped up on it himself and went without a leash. i took him to puppy play at petco for the first time in awhile. he made a new girlfriend and had a ton of fun. we got the pics they did in the mail today. they turned out pretty good. can't complain since they were free. we stayed in tonight and watched the movie the greatest. it wasn't quite the greatest but it was pretty good.

skipped

2010-05-28T10:39:00.001-07:00

looks like i've skipped a week or so writing. it's been a busy time so i've had a lot to write about and not much time to do it. i got to see a lot of my family this past weekend. it was my niece's graduation and a dinner celebration. both were nice events to attend. another event most of us attended was our old pastor's funeral. it was nice to see his family. they were always so nice to us. very sad to see him go. i spent the night at my brother's that night and got to help out with the birds. it'd been awhile since i'd done that and i always enjoy it so that was nice too. i'm going to work on getting all those pics up soon. this is where they should start from when i posted last. the first one's of the riverrock festival i took colby to last weekend. he took his first swim in the river and had an absolute blast. gareth's gone to see two movies in the past two weeks. macgruber and prince of persia. neither were good. we watched the road at home and weren't too impressed. i did watch a gem the other night though called the defendor. i got my cholesterol checked again for the first time since i've been on meds. it's normal now which is great news. our landlord came by today to inspect our mold problem. the ac unit is infested and spits out little pieces. he helped me clean it up so i hope it's no longer a problem. it was pretty gross. i guess that's about it. except probably most importantly i've spent a lot of time recently looking into a career with animals. right now i'm looking into what it will take for me to work at a vet's office or a shelter doing vet assisting and eventually getting a degree to be a vet tech. i hope i actually pursue this instead of just thinking about it. it seems like something i should do.

trees

2010-05-11T10:15:00.000-07:00

it's been a nice week. besides getting out a lot to enjoy the summer weather i also got to see a lot of movies. invictus comes out next week. so does valentine's day but i wouldn't recommend it. or good hair. i finally saw man on the moon and it was great. we also saw iron man two and gareth loved it. i enjoyed it as well. i took colby home on sunday for mother's day. he had fun being around everyone especially my nephew who ran around with him for most of the time. i just got my webshots album updated with all that. i took colby to another park with fewer dogs yesterday. he did a lot better playing with just one or two dogs. i think we'll start going there instead and build up his confidence a bit. it's supposed to start raining today and have scattered thunderstorms for the next few days. guess it's time to work on him with the treadmill again. gareth got this great shot of the baby birds in our side yard. he's tall enough to see into the trees.

free

2010-05-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

i chopped off my hair last week. every few years i take off ten inches and donate it to locks of love. i actually got a nice haircut this time though. found out some salons give free cuts for donations. colby got a makeover too. it was much easier to bathe him with the bath mat we got. we also did his nails for the first time ourselves. it didn't go so well. the clippers were leaving them shredded so we got a dremel. he hated both. we finally got them all done but that's going to take a lot more work to get him comfortable with it. i took him to the dog park again but his girlfriend wasn't there at all and he didn't play with a single other dog. i finally got him to fetch the ball after the other dogs weren't around but it was sad to see him so uncomfortable around all the other dogs. we've had a nice day with me off today and not having much to do. i watched the first iron man in preparation of the second one's midnight opening this week. gareth's so excited about it. he saw a nightmare on elm street last week. we went out to maggiano's this weekend. it was exquisite as usual.

earth

2010-04-26T08:30:00.000-07:00

colby's been feeling much better this week so we got to do a lot. i took him home for a visit to my parents' on one of my days off. we stopped by a friend's workplace on the way and got to run around the gardens. at my parents' house i took him skateboarding for the first time. got him a harness so he could pull me. he kinda got the concept. we had fun on our walk/skate with mom. he actually was let off leash when we played fetch in the yard and did well staying in the grass. we went exploring in the woods and he walked into the lake a little. dad and i took him on a raft ride as the sun was setting. it was a nice day. the next day i had off as well and it was earth day. i went out to the farm and spent three hours taking care of the new horse there. he's been cruely neglected and he's in pretty bad shape. but with the help of the rescue hopefully he'll be happy and healthy soon. the birds have started coming to the feeder. it's nice to see some wildlife right outside the window. we got to see oceans. it was enjoyable. also watched the imaginarium of doctor parnassus. it was interesting. it was supposed to rain all weekend and into the beginning of the week but i've only seen a few showers pass through. we went back to the dog park yesterday. he was happy to see his girlfriend but after she left he didn't really know how to make new friends. i hope he gets better at that. we'll just have to go more.

hanging

2010-04-19T11:57:00.000-07:00

another dog filled week. but this one wasn't so good. he had the runs early last week so we took him to the vets. he had an overgrowth of bacteria in his gi tract. probably from all the treats at the pet store over the weekend. they put him on antibiotics and probiotics and a bland diet. i always joke about him being like our baby but i really felt like it giving him baby food for a few days there. he's getting back on his regular food now but we have to take it slow. he threw up last night. i hope he starts feeling better soon. poor pup's been taking it easy for a week now. not too much else going on. i finally got something to put my bird feeder up outside on the window. i hope the birds figure out it's there and start coming soon. i also hung my magnificent spider plant up outside. gareth and i had a date night last friday. we stayed in and saw crazy heart. it was pretty good. i'm looking forward to seeing oceans this coming weekend. earth day is thursday and i'm off but he's working so i'll have to find something entertaining to do outside. hopefully with a healthy dog.

country

2010-04-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

i actually got two days off in a row last week. unfortunately it was at the beginning of the week and now i'm in the middle of working seven days straight. on one of the days off we went back home to pick up my parents' old treadmill. it's actually for colby. we've seen numerous times on the dog whisperer that it's a great way to exercise dogs. it's going to take some training to get him up and running though and that hasn't happened yet. he had his last class on friday. passed with flying colors. our trainer always told us (including colby) what a great dog he was. i took him to puppy play at the store again on saturday. his girlfriend was there and the owner invited us to go to a real dog park with them on sunday. he had so much fun with the twenty something dogs there. i've never seen him run so much. i don't think he ever has. he passed out as soon as we got home. gareth's bday was also last week. we didn't get to do anything for it since we were both working. i hope we get some time off together soon. we did get to hang out together on easter with my family in louisa. they all got to meet colby and he had a good time out in the country. we had a good time out there too : ]

pineapple

2010-04-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

i got a new cord for my laptop but i'm still on gareth's computer. i don't know what the problem is with mine now. probably the fact that it's four years old. i did get caught up on my webshots album though. most pics are of colby since he's the most photogenic thing around. he learned how to shake and roll over tonight. next week is graduation. i'll definitely have some pics of that. it's been such a nice week out. i think it's been eighty the past day or so. i've started taking budd out in the side yard. colby's been doing pretty good with him but a turtle's an exciting thing to have around. we've gotten as far as letting the dog sniff kitt through the gate. she doesn't like it. i think that will be the true test for his graduation. gareth went to see clash of the titans last night. we saw a few good movies on dvd (blu ray) this week. sherlock holmes was as enjoyable as we'd thought it would be. hachi was a good but sad one. i don't think anyone could watch it without crying. i got a post card from my traveling friend today with pineapples on it. made me miss summer at my parents house out on our raft in the middle of the lake eating fresh pineapple. maybe i'll get to do that soon.

clean

2010-03-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

i haven't been able to use my computer for a week now. my power cord stopped working. i've ordered another and it should be here soon. i'll get my photo album updated as soon as it does. gareth went to see repo men last week. we finally got to see the blind side this week. it's good. and only available for rent at bbuster. same as sherlock holmes next week. we're looking forward to seeing that. it's been such a nice week out until today. a rainy and windy and cold one on my day off. we gave colby his first bath today. he did quite well with it. he was pretty stinky after a month of playing outside. we've been bringing him to an apartment complex nearby that has a dog exercise area just about every day this week. it's been nice getting out and seeing spring come to life. i'll have to take some pics of that soon. i hear my dad's having an interesting time in georgia. i told him he should start a blog. he sent me a nice sunset shot last week. made me smile. i can't wait to get to traveling this summer. no big plans this year but a trip to va beach to see my dad and a trip to florida to see gareth's dad will suffice. i'll have to settle for trips around the neighborhood with the dog for now. at least he's clean and cute.

exciting

2010-03-21T08:51:00.000-07:00

another exciting week but i'm not so exhausted today. the puppy's passed out though. we went back to the shelter i got him at last night for their adopt-a-thon event. he was so happy to see everyone there and they were happy to see him. he had more excitement the other day when we went to our old roommate's place and colby got to play with his dog naiyah in their back yard. she's a little bigger and we were all rooting for him getting the ball from her. it's starting to feel like summer here. yesterday was the official first day of spring. tonight is the official start of the series "life" from the people that did "planet earth." i'm super excited. i did get called in for jury duty on st. patty's day. we had some luck though and after sitting in a room for almost two hours the judge actually came up and said that we were not needed for the day because the defendant had pleaded guilty. so we all got paid for just showing up. and we shouldn't get called in again for this period. i got a surprise when i stepped out the back door of my apartment the other day. this guy was sitting on the fire escape. i screamed. then took this picture...

exhausted

2010-03-13T17:20:00.000-08:00

i've been exhausted all week. it had been raining for the past few days. we're supposed to get thunder storms tonight. but it was nice out this afternoon so colby and i got to play a lot after i got home from work. he learnd how to sit in class last night. he's doing pretty good with that command and even better with last week's. i didn't get out to the barn this week but i did go to the monthly meeting. we're looking for more volunteers if anyone reading this is interested in joining. my dad left today for an rv adventure in georgia. i'm sure he's excited to get out and explore after being cooped up all winter. i called my grandma for the first time since she got home. she'd sent me a belated bday card. nice of her after all she's been through. she sounded better but said she's still not feeling well. i also got a gift from a friend travelling in asia. a little pillow pin with embroidered stick figures and some foreign candies. made me feel special. i had to call in for jury duty for the first time last night. i'm on call for the next two weeks. just hope i don't have to go in. i guess there is a lot going on. i'm just feeling more exhausted than excited about everything.

nice

2010-03-07T08:33:00.000-08:00

another exciting week with colby. we had some nice days out and got out to enjoy them. he made some friends at the park and at obedience class. we started him on clicker training. he did really well with the trainer at class and he's been doing better with us at home. he did have his first accident inside the night we got back from class. we'd just taken him out but i guess he still had to go. we took him to our vets this week too. learned how to trim his nails and got him on his preventatives. we're finally done paying for everything initially for him. it came to almost a thousand dollars. wow. we went to see the midnight showing of alice in wonderland. it was pretty cool looking but not the best story. the oscars are tonight. gareth took off but i forgot and am working. there are some pretty good ones this year. we watched up in the air the other day. it was really good. we got to see my family again yesterday. my nephew had his tenth bday party at a laser tag place in short pump so i got off work early to go hang out. my parents and my brother came over to see colby before we all went out to eat at the best italian restaurant in r'mond. carinis. it was a nice way to end the week.

week

2010-02-27T08:10:00.000-08:00

it's been a great week. not having to work was definitly a plus. i go back tonight. we spent my last day off yesterday visiting my parents. they were pretty excited to see colby. he was pretty excited to see some snow. we had a nice time and dad made us dinner. colby even got some chicken. i was able to do more this week with my days off. i took my car to be inspected. all it needed was new windshield wipers. sweet. i also went out to the farm. it's a big mudhole now with all the snow that's melting. but it was nice to get the horses in and get the mud off them. we watched michael moore's newest movie last night. capitalism. very informative. and scary. his films always do that. gareth might go see the crazies this weekend. i've just got a few more things to get done for colby this weekend. we need to get him a city license from the spca. and i'm going to sign us up for puppy training classes at petco. it's not that we're really having problems with him. but i'd like us to really have control over him at this age so when he gets bigger we don't have huge problems. he's been really good so far though. we're really happy.

home

2010-02-24T06:15:00.000-08:00

he's home now. things have gone really well so far. he's doing great with the housebreaking. hasn't had an accident at all. we put him in the crate last night and after whining for a few minutes he was quite calm and went to sleep. he's let out a few barks but we've been able to stop him pretty quickly. kitt's been spending a lot of time under our bed but they've seen eachother and neither has been too upset. he's half asleep at my feet right now and we're watching dogs 101. i'm happy. he took right to gareth too. he's been really good with his training. he's had some trouble getting up and down the steps but we've been patient and positive and he's getting the hang of it. he's so good on walks. we thought that would take a lot of training to get him walking on a leash but he's doing great. so we're quite happy with how things are going and happy that he's finally home.

ready

2010-02-20T08:12:00.000-08:00

we get to pick up colby on tuesday. we've decided to keep the name. i went to see him again yesterday. got a video of him outside this time. too cute. we finished his shopping last night. got things all set up and kitt started exploring it.

we both got some extra days off next week to spend with the new guy. gareth really enjoyed shutter island. i thought the informant was quite amusing. not too much else is going on. we just can't wait for tuesday.

puppy

2010-02-17T09:18:00.000-08:00

something seemingly random happened this weekend. we decided to get a dog. i've actually been wanting, looking, researching and convincing for months now. then i found this guy. his name for now is colby. i like the name but we may find something else that suits him. he's the sweetest guy. i went to meet him yesterday and took some videos. i took this video within five minutes of meeting him. i was there for about two hours. took him outside twice. he loved the snow. i didn't get a video of that. i took this video at the end of our meeting. he's four months old now. he's listed as a chow chow mix. but i really don't think he has much if any chow in him. as you can see his tongue is pure pink. he really looks like a shiba inu except his ears bend at the top and his tail is straight. he's adorable whatever hs is. gareth's excited about getting him too. one of our main concerns is the fact that we live in an apartment. but i've started puppy proofing the room he'll start out in and we plan to crate train him and give him a lot of excercise. the other concern is the cat but we're going to separate them at first. they showed me how good he is with the shelter cat though and we had a dog over the other day to see how kitt was. she didn't necessarily like the dog but she didn't freak out either. and most importantly she hasn't peed at all. i brought a towel to the shelter and rubbed the dog down with it and put it in her bed too so she starts getting used to the dog's smell. i think if we take things slow and are careful that we can make this work well for everyone involved. we're just waiting for the shelter to call the vets to see if kitt's up to date on her shots. which she is. and call the landlord to see if we have his approval. which we do. then they'll let us know when he can get in to be neutered and when we can pick him up. i'm so excited. other exciting things have happened this week i should write about. on valentine's day i walked into the living room to find a giant box of ghirardelli chocolates. my favorite. i finally went to the doctors this week to get put on some cholesterol meds. not too exciting but a good thing to do. gareth's woflman review just got posted. i hope they get on the ball with things and put up his review of shutter island this week. the informant doesn't come out until next week so i should be able to see it now. it's going to be a long week waiting to get the new puppy home. but we get to go shopping for him so that'll keep me busy.

riches

2010-02-12T07:56:00.000-08:00

another pretty busy week here. i ended up closing the store early last weekend on the day i'd switched shifts. this next paycheck will pay for those two snow days getting cut short. but i just checked my bank account and saw i got my taxes back today. i haven't seen that much money in there in a long time. probably since last year's taxes. puts a smile on my face. i was pretty happy on my day off monday when i got gareth to go to the park with me at sunset. we met some nice birds and saw some pretty scenes. we went to the byrd after and saw the fantastic mr fox. gareth had already seen it but he said it was even better the second time. it looked really neat and made me smile. i've been waiting to get the informant at our store all week but it hasn't come. hopefully we'll get it this weekend and i'll get to see it before it comes out next week. gareth went to see wolfman last night. he starts the prescreenings next week. i'm excited for him. we had another snow storm here. this time it was mid-week. i'd barely been aware of it since it was only supposed to be a few inches. but i opened the morning it hit and was faced with the worst road conditions i've had to drive in so far. i got on the interstate since it had been the most cleared on other days and watced a truck spin out in front of me. scary stuff. i made it there safe though and got a call from my manager who sounded surprised. she was told we could open the store late because of the horrible weather. but i opened on time. the thing that made this storm so bad was the wind. it was like a blizzard when it was snowing then still looked like it was snowing with the wind whipping what was fallen all around. it's supposed to snow a little again tonight into tomorrow morning. i'm opening so i hope it's not another crazy little storm. we're all pretty tired of this now. i haven't made it out to the barn in the past two weeks. partly due to the snow and partly due to my new schedule. i hope i can get back on board with that. i'm working on valentine's day sunday and we don't usually do much anyways but we're going to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate. i'll take any excuse for that.

productive

2010-02-05T15:15:00.000-08:00

i'm getting my weekends confused. it seems like they've all been snowy ones lately. this is another weekend of snow. i took some pictures last weekend. they actually closed the store early on saturday and i was supposed to close so i didn't have to go in at all. it was the first snow day i've had off in a long time. i'm also off today. but not because of the snow. i just got a call from my manager asking if i wanted to switch shifts tomorrow and close instead of opening and i gladly accepted. she said she has a truck so she can make it out easily. i'm really liking this manager so far. she seems to have her act together and run a smooth store. even though the drive is twice as far and i have to take the interstate. it's worth it not to complain about someone who makes more money than me. poor gareth had to go in this morning to help out his manager who was working alone. he said it was the busiest day he's ever worked. he's passed out on the couch right now. i went out to the grocery store earlier and it was a madhouse. the roads were getting pretty bad when i left. i don't know why people risk their safety like that for entertainment. i went to the dentist for the first time in like four years this week. i hadn't had insurance and i just signed up for it this year. they actually said things looked pretty good. no cavities. but they did do quite a job scraping all the tartar buildup. they made me bleed. that was a first for me at a cleaning. i went to my parents' house after my appointment for the first time since christmas. my dad's been sick for a month. he finally went to the doctors and found out he has bronchitis. poor dad. hopefully he's on his way to getting better now. my mom should be coming home next week. i haven't talked to her this week but i think things are going well now. i stopped by petsmart this week. they said they were hiring and that i should hear back from them soon. i filed my taxes today. i'm getting twelve hundred back this year. woohoo. i can finally start saving again after emptying my savings payng off my car. we watched a serious man on dvd this week. it's really good. pretty subtle. but keeps your interest. we're going to watch couples retreat tonight. not expecting so much from that. gareth got a message from rva magazine about doing pre screenings with the radio station y101. that's a great step for them and for him. i hope it all works out. this is a long post. guess it's been a pretty productive week for us.

somethings

2010-01-28T19:56:00.001-08:00

some good news and some bad. the good is they finally figured out what might be causing my grandma's mental condition since she's been in the hospital. it turns out they messed up her meds. i talked to my mom today and she said she's been better since they fixed it yesterday. that's a huge relief. my poor mom's had to deal with a lot over the past few weeks with all that. so i'm glad there's a good outcome to the situation. the bad is i'm not getting a raise. don't really know what to do about that from this point. i applied at petsmart to be a dog groomer last night. i know i can't quit without having something else so i guess i just have to step it up on the job search. i am looking forward to getting away from the manager at the store i've been working at though. he sucks. i hear the one at the store i'm going to doesn't. i've been going out to see the horses once a week since the holidays. they got one adopted and two new horses so now there's three. even with all the mud i've enjoyed spending time out there. i watched a good documentary that came out this week. it's called no impact man. it's about a man and his family who go a year without impacting the environment. gareth's going to see mel gibson's edge of darkness tomorrow. it's supposed to snow this weekend. i hope it's not a mess like last time. i'd like to enjoy it.

raining

2010-01-22T09:48:00.000-08:00

another not too exciting week. some interesting stuff to write about though. i finally saw the movie event of the year (so far). avatar. it was pretty cool. definitly worth seeing in theaters for the 3d. that's the first movie i've seen in theaters in a few months i think. the best movie i've seen on dvd lately has been moon. a syfy (that's how they spell the channel now) psychological drama set in the not too distant future. we only got a few copies but it's definitly worth checking out. i got some news this week about my job. i'm going to be transfered in the not too distant future. it's the same "your store doesn't make enough money to have an assistant manager" spheel i was given months ago before the last manager quit and i had to run the store for a month then help get the new manager through the holidays. i'm still waiting to hear where i'm going and if i'm getting a raise. my dad ended up having to get my resume set up correctly on the website i was trying to use to find a job. i applied to a position today. thanks dad. my mom's been in new york for over a week now. my grandma hadn't been doing well after ending up in the hospital then a nursing home from her fall. my mom went to help with the situation. not sure how that's going. hopefully i'll get some good news soon. in all of these situations. it's been raining too much.

board

2010-01-15T09:43:00.000-08:00

not a lot has happened since i last wrote. the biggest and best though was going snowboarding with my brother and his girlfriend at wintergreen. i took a lot of pictures. and had a lot of fun. gareth couldn't go but i'm hoping we can make plans to go next month and that he can try to ski. he went to see the book of eli last night. that's the first movie he's reviewed this year. he talked to his dad about finding a job recently and he'd suggested going to the virginia employment commission. i went on last night and it's the most confusing website i've tried to use to find a job yet. but i managed to upload my resume after some time. it still wouldn't let me apply for a job. but i'm hopeful i can figure that out soon enough and have a new tool in my job searching. things have been ok since i stopped getting so worked up about work. but i work with the girl from new years eve for the first time since tonight so i'm hoping i won't have anything to complain about from that. kitt went on a peeing spree this morning. she got the rug in the kitchen and the rug in the bathroom. so she's been banished to her room with a clean kitty litter. i really don't know what her problem is. it's nothing medical. but i don't know what happens that she has a bad attitude about if that's the case. crazy cat. it's finally warming up around here. it'd been in the teens for far too long. it's supposed to stay nice and sunny until sunday. unfortunately that's the day i was invited out to help train the horses under saddle. hopefully the rain will hold off.

new

2010-01-05T18:33:00.000-08:00

dad's party was nice. i was actually early to a family gathering so that was good. dad was happy to know he didn't have to get up and drive to work the next morning. work's been pretty bad for me lately. we just found out one of the stores in richmond is closing next month. our manager is aware of the possibility of more stores closing including ours. that's why he'd cut hours so much over the holidays when we should have had extra coverage. it made for many difficult shifts for me. the worst came new year's eve when my csr found out she hadn't gotten paid holiday pay for working christmas eve. she had a temper tantrum and i ended up telling her to leave. after being in the back for an hour she came up and said she couldn't afford to leave. i told her to straighten the store and didn't see her the rest of the night until closing. so i basically worked by myself. it was pretty busy and quite annoying. i've made a new year's resolution though to not complain so much about work. so i'm hoping that's my last complaint written this year. it happened last year and was pretty crazy so i'll let it slide. it's mostly in the form of complaining to gareth. he's shown me how much i let these things effect my life outside of work. and it's not fair to him. or me. so i hope i can improve. he did his top ten movies of last year. the last one before that he'd reviewed was avatar. it made it on the list. another one i didn't see. i got the results back from the vets. everything's ok for now. if budd doesn't have the rest of the eggs in the next few months i can bring her back to get the shots that will help her pass them. kitt's results were good. i'm happy they're both healthy for now. it's been a pretty good start to the new year so far.

break

2009-12-31T09:53:00.000-08:00

i went out to the barn last night for the first time in a couple of weeks. i was showing off my camera to the other lady there and she took my picture with one of the horses. it was so cold out. i'd gone out to the king william barn earlier in the day and took pics of the horses out there. i'm glad to be helping again. i also finally got around to bringing my pets to the vets. kitt's annual exam was half a year overdue. and budd's eggs were months overdue. they ended up costing four hundred dollars. budd still has two eggs and they're going to get back to me about what we should do about it. kitt got her senior labs done and i'll hear back soon if anything more needs to be done with her. so they may end up costing even more. good thing i'm getting holiday pay tonight working new year's eve. i had a second christmas this week going shopping with all the gift cards i got for christmas. i got us a much needed vacuum cleaner from kohls. a massage mat for our chair from wal mart. and an indoor/outdoor digital thermometer from home depot. there were such great sales after christmas too. i got some stuff up to half off. dad's retirement party is this weekend. he's worked so hard to support five kids for almost forty years. he deserves the big break.

settled

2009-12-26T17:56:00.000-08:00

this past week has been pretty crazy. it started out pretty terrible last weekend. we got about a foot of snow. and i had to work through all of it. i closed friday night and had six inches on my car already even closing an hour early. i was the only one able to get there saturday. gareth had to drive me. it continued snowing all day. i was only there from noon until five and i was busy the entire time. so mad at everyone risking their safety to go out and get a movie. i almost didn't go in sunday when everything iced over. but i was told i had to by my manager who's boss told him someone had to. he actually went out that night to close so that made me a little less angry about the whole situation. but all in all it was pretty terrible. and my family's plans for my bday on sunday were cancelled because of all the snow too. we finally celebrated on christmas day. i was too late to see anyone on christmas eve after working that morning. i'd ended up working seven days in a row before getting christmas off. i was pretty happy about that. it was a really nice day with everyone. i posted some videos of everyone opening the presents i got them. and pics after. i love my new camera. i had today off and spent the day cleaning up the apartment and doing some catch up shopping. finally feel like i'm all settled after all the madness. can't wait for gareth to come home tomorrow. i always miss him when he's gone.

bday

2009-12-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

i had a pretty good bday yesterday. even though it started out at the doctors. my ears had started hurting at work the day before so i figured the nurses were right. the doctor said i had some fluid in them but that it wasn't a full blown infection. she said to take sudafed gave me something for the dizziness. but on the prescription it says it may cause dizziness and drowsiness. so that won't really help at work. or in general if it really makes me dizzy. they did some labs on my bloodwork though so i know there's not anything else seriously wrong with me. i also got my cholesterol checked. it's been a few years and growing up i always had really high cholesterol from my mom. seeing both my parents have heart issues over the years i know i really should be doing something about it. after the doctors i finished my christmas shopping. that one sentence took about five hours. while we were shopping though gareth bought me a magic bullet food processor. and a car wash. he'd already gotten me the national geographic series on disc. every issue ever made. it looks pretty cool. and it was very thoughtful of him. we went by petsmart yesterday and there was a rat that looked just like pete there. i really wanted to get him. gareth put his foot down though and said it was a bad idea. he's probably right. i don't really want to replace him. i just really miss him. my family called me from florida to wish me a happy bday. mom wanted them to sing but that's just what mom does every year. leaves me a voicemail of her singing happy bday. gareth took me to maggianos last night. i got the eggplant parmesan and he got the giant lasagna. i brought home chocolate cake. and most of the lasagna. it was nice. i'd say i had a happy bday. thanks everyone.

dizzy

2009-12-15T08:01:00.000-08:00

i'm just finishing up editing photos for albums for christmas. i started last week and really didn't think it would take this long. i'm excited to get them printed and put them in order. that's my favorite part. i still haven't found presents for half my family. i have today off though so i'll be out shopping until i drop. and that may be literally. i've been experiencing vertigo lately. this is going on three days now. it's happened before but always went away pretty quickly. there are a few nurses who come through bbuster that i always get diagnoses from when i have something wrong. the inner ear was the unanimous culprit. they all said i should go to the doctors if it continues much longer. so i may be spending my bday on thursday at the doctors. that's the other day i got off this week. i need to email my family and tell them i didn't get off sunday to celebrate with them. after i made a big deal about wanting to celebrate apart from christmas. and it turns out i'll probably be working christmas eve and christmas. the manager and i both worked on thanksgiving thinking that then the other two shift leaders would take a shift on christmas and christmas eve. apparently that was just a thought though because neither of them can work either. i just hope i get my original request of christmas eve night and christmas day morning off. mom will cry if i don't. and i just might too. my grandma was in the hospital this past weekend. she'd fallen and broke a vertebrae. i called and wasn't sure she knew who i was at first. but once she said she'd started reading the book i sent her i was pretty sure she knew it was me. she said she hadn't had any visitors and seemed happy i'd called. poor grandma. gareth and i saw some movies this weekend. he reviewed invictus and really liked it. i went to see the princess and the frog with him and we both really enjoyed that. glad disney's got their animation studio up and going again. my family will have to thank them for me. they're at disney world this week.

accidents

2009-12-11T09:43:00.000-08:00

my car got towed this morning. they've been doing leaf cleanup on our streets and i thought it was over but apparently today was the last day. i'm waiting for gareth to get ready to go so we can pick it up. that's sixty dollars less to spend on christmas presents this year. gareth's offered to pay for half. i'd been budgeting to actually get nice presents for everyone this year so that'll help. it's been a pretty hectic week. our store flooded for the third time this week. the first time i've opened though. i did everything i thought i was supposed to but when i called the manager to let him know what was going on he told me to pull out the shop vac from the back and start cleaning it up myself. i was not happy about this. he hadn't done that the two times before. and i was very unhappy when someone else got there and said i shouldn't be touching anything that was wet because it was close to an electric outlet and i could get shocked. more things are adding up on the negative side with him lately. i just read on here about a friend who had an accident driving this past weekend when it snowed. that's the day gareth and i drove back home to decorate. it was a good time but pretty scary driving my car in the snow for the first time. i'm glad i didn't have the same thing happen to me. we had a cat follow gareth home last night. i took some food and warm milk out for him. he was so sweet. i wished i could bring him in from the cold. i hope he had a nice warm home of his own.

lucky

2009-12-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

i really thought i was opening today. luckily when i was writing down my schedule last night for next week i noticed that i'm actually closing. i'd been waiting to watch the hangover with gareth tonight. oh well. we both have tomorrow off but i've already made plans to go home and help with the christmas decorations. not even sure gareth will be able to accompany me. he's been sick all week. some days he feels better. some days he feels worse. i just hope i don't catch it from him this time. my wrist got better. i don't really know what was wrong with it. i was going to make an appointment on monday morning when suddenly it just popped back into place. glad i didn't have to deal with all that. i went out to the new barn for the first time this week. there's only two horses there and there were three of us. so they both got lots of attention after being out in the rain all day. i talked to someone there about taking riding lessons. that would be good for me. i watched a really good french documentary last night. called the gleaners and i. about people who scavenge fields after harvest as well as people in the city who go dumpster diving. opened my eyes a little. there's a guy who's sometimes on the corner of bbuster's shopping center. if i have any leftovers after work i give them to him. but it makes me sad to see.

hard

2009-11-27T08:33:00.000-08:00

pete died last night. i thought he was looking better this past week after getting a refill on his meds but the day before yesterday he stopped eating and started looking pretty bad. gareth and i arrived home from work at the same time in the pouring rain. i was glad i wasn't alone when i discovered him. at least he had a very peaceful look on his face. lying on the floor of his tank with his hands almost in prayer position on the side of his face. at least he's not suffering anymore. i thought that was the hardest part watching him in pain. but i was pretty torn up last night. i'm bringing his body back home today to bury in the yard with all my past pets. that was a lousy way to end thanksgiving day. dinner at my sister's house was pretty great though. i brought a non-tofu tofurkey (no meat or soy... not entirely sure what it was made of) and made vegetarian stuffing for the first time. it had been years since i'd had stuffing and it was awesome. my mom's cousin made lots of veggie dishes too and they were wonderful (sweet potatoes with cranberries... green beans with pine nuts...mmm). i brought home lots of leftovers. including half a pecan pie from my parents. my favorite. i saw the most ironic site on the driveway to their house. a flock of turkeys. put a pretty big smile on my face. so it turns out that sore wrist i've had might be carpal tunnel. my mom had it and ended up needing surgery a few years back. it's gotten worse over the past week. working definitly makes it worse. it might even be the cause of it. i'd been wrapping up my wrist all week but on wednesday i was there by myself all morning with a non-stop line of customers and i couldn't work fast enough with a wrap on. so by today it's hurting pretty bad. i got a wrist guard last night like mom suggested but it really seemed to make things worse. i guess a doctor is my next step here. so many ups and downs in life. it's hard to hang on on this roller coaster.

balance

2009-11-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

i'm trying not to be entirely negative about our new manager but i have a few complaints. first he completly changed my schedule this week and didn't tell me at all. he ended up having to change it again on monday once he found out we had inventory this week. that's my second complaint. the store has been an absolutely horrible mess partly due to inventory this week. on the positive side. first he got most of the rest of the christmas makeover done while i was gone. i don't think i could put up another holiday themed thing at our store. i did get the little christmas tree on the left for my home though. second i did get off the morning of thanksgiving. we're having our dinner at two so i'll at least get a few hours with my family. gareth has to work a double so he has christmas off. i don't know what's going to happen on christmas but another morning off would be good for me. the third positive thing was that i got to take pictures of the horses on one of the days i had off this week. gareth had to see the new twilight movie this week. another midnight viewing i did not attend. we've been busy playing the new super mario brothers on wii. the only game i actually enjoy playing. haven't gotten too far but that means more to play later. not today though. it's time to go to work. with a sore wrist. that's three.

off

2009-11-16T12:12:00.001-08:00

so the sun finally decided to show itself yesterday for the first time all week. the last day i had of my week off. the rain had cancelled my photo taking plans. but that gave me time to finish my florida album. i went out to louisa to catch up on my sunshine yesterday. got some good pictures. found out my sister got another dog. pete's still holding on here. my parents came and visited everyone here over the weekend. my niece made it to states cheerleading and they were at vcu so they stopped by to say hi. we were having a movie marathon that day. we watched all of the lord of the rings movies. it took about fourteen hours. they were good and i'm glad i finally saw them but i'm also glad i won't have to do that again. gareth went to see the 2012 midnight opening on friday. i thought it might be too intense to see on the big screen. instead i got to watch three of my five free rentals this week. my sister's keeper, angels and demons and the it's always sunny in philadelphia christmas special. none were spectacular. but all in all it was an alright week. better than having to work. i go back tonight and find out how the new manager's been doing on his first week. i hope he's been doing well and i can keep unstressed a little while longer. here's to hoping.

antics

2009-11-10T06:54:00.000-08:00

i just got back from the vets. pete's foot swelled up and i finally decided to take him in. turns out he has pneumonia. i thought he was just in bad shape from his foot. i feel so bad for not taking him in earlier. i got antibiotics to try and heal both things but it may be too late. i cried when i heard the assistant briefing the vet on the situation and say "it's looking pretty bad." the vet had a rat growing up that lived four years. i hope pete recovers and still has many years to come. i took budd outside yesterday for the first time since it started getting cold this season. it was nice and sunny out and she seemed to enjoy romping around the yard. i put her in the dry tank we set up for laying eggs after and she'd been in there all night. she started scratching at the walls this morning so now she's back in her aquarium. we'll cross our fingers for more eggs now. that routine seemed to work before. you'd think one of my pets wouldn't be high maintenance right now but kitt's joined in the antics. she had a peeing spree the other day. the first one at this place. both gareth and i were in the "pet's room" the other day. me working on my computer and him waiting for his to come (he just bought a macbook). we watched kitt go in and out of her litter box about a dozen times in the hour or so we were sitting there. noted that it was strange and maybe she wasn't feeling well. then i went to the bathroom and kitt followed. she squatted right in front of me and started peeing. i yelled and threw her out. we thought maybe she just didn't like us being in "her" room so we left but i found a few more spots throughout the day where she'd gone. i haven't seen any since though so hopefully that was a one time thing. i'm back in the room on my computers now though. she seems to be at peace drinking some water. or maybe she's reloading. gareth's old computer died on him (hence the huge upgrade) and i lucked out getting his old flatscreen monitor for my photo editing desktop. i think i'll spend the day working on my florida pictures until i have to go to work. the only day i go in this week. we actually got a manager and i finally got the rest of my paid time off. woohoo. i went out this past weekend and helped set up the new barn in short pump. i took some pictures. hopefully i'll be taking a lot of horses this week.

excited

2009-11-05T16:14:00.001-08:00

i ended up going out last week just as the lady was leaving. she'd gone out early since it was getting dark earlier and hadn't informed me in time. at least i got to hang out with the horses and give them some carrots before driving the half hour plus home. i went out tonight on time and got to help for the first time. it was kind of intimidating. i guess i hadn't informed them that i hadn't been around horses in some time. so when they started telling me things to do like i knew how to do them i was a bit worried. but i was able to step up and do what needed to be done. there's a new barn opening up near short pump soon so i'll probably start going out there. should be a bit closer for me. i'm excited. i've started taking more pictures this week. i hadn't used my little camera in some time. they want me to go out to all the barns and take pics of all the horses for the rescue. i have been informed of a new manager finally coming next week so i should finally be getting some of that paid time off i've been expecting. of course this comes after this week's rediculous christmas makeover. i shouldn't be so surprised but it actually took a month for us to get a new manager. blah. we're going to see the midnight opening of men who stare at goats tonight. should be good. hope i can stay awake until then.

investing

2009-10-29T11:15:00.000-07:00

i was sick for about a week there. was feeling better going back to work but it proved to be too much for me and i was feeling pretty crummy after working five days in a row including one double shift. but now i have three days off in a row. this is my second one of those. all i have now is the cough but that finally seems to be going away. i went out to the rehab barn for the horse rescue this past weekend too and took some pics of a volunteer for the aarp. i think they're going to use the first pic for publication. i'm going back out tonight to help clean horses and stalls. i'm glad this actually happened. looking back i seem to get a lot of ideas of things to do but don't always go through with them. so i'm happy this did. gareth and i tracked down the soundtrack to where the wild things are and i've been listening to it non-stop as i do with the few cds i listen to. it helps put me in my own imaginary world. my rat pete has been getting old lately. i've thought he was going to die soon for the past few weeks. his bumblefoot came back and he wasn't eating or drinking for a little while there. i was too sick and busy myself to give him the kind of care he needed but now i'm fully attending his needs and he seems to be doing better. he's still two years old though so i know he won't be around a whole lot longer. as long as i can make him comfortable until then i'll be doing my part. budd still hasn't laid the last three eggs. i don't know what to do about that. pets are so investing. of time and worry and money and attention. it's a good thing i love them. it's hard to imagine the horses that are rescued from people who failed to do all of those things. i'm glad i can help.

sick

2009-10-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

despite all the good food i ended up getting sick this week. and i had to open on the first full blown day. i felt awful. i really don't know how i made it through. but i was lucky to have the next two days off to recover. this is the second of those days and i'm feeling better but still not healthy. i'm hoping another day of rest and meds will have me on my feet for the working weekend ahead. i had a good day last sunday going home. my dad and i went to see where the wild things are. he liked it too. then we went out to chilis. it was an adventure to get there as we were both surprised to see that the mall was under construction. there's always something under construction back home. i finally finished my alaska album. now i have florida to do. i've enjoyed these past few days spent at home. although uncomfortable i was able to lie in bed and i've almost finished my book. call of the wild. not the jack london one but another about a man who went to alaska to live in the wild. it's pretty good and helped wisk me away into another world. i always enjoy those.

imaginary

2009-10-16T14:19:00.001-07:00

so suddenly it's fall. feels more like winter. we've turned on the heat for the first time here and i pulled out my coat the other day. i like the cold weather. at least a little of it. i'm sure i'll be glad when spring arrives again. i've been on a cooking spree lately. made sweet potato and squash soup the other day. and lentil spinach walnut salad last night. i've been feeling a little under the weather this week but i think the good food's helped me not to get completly sick. gareth's been pretty sick these past few days. and he was up late last night seeing where the wild things are. i went with him for the midnight opening. it was sold out. and well worth it. i really enjoyed how beautiful the imaginary world they created was. we still don't have a manager. another manager came by this week and showed me how to do some more things around the store. the district manager said she'd let me know what was going to happen next week. i asked if i was going to be staying at the store and said that i preferred to do that. but that i'd looked forward to that raise we'd talked about awhile ago. she said she thought i'd be staying there and that any raises weren't going to happen until the first of next year. so i guess i'm staying and i'll find out who comes soon.

running

2009-10-10T09:48:00.001-07:00

our manager left a week ago. he'd put in his two weeks notice before i left for my trip so they had three weeks to figure out how to cover his absence. and i still don't know what's happening with that. i've been pretty much running things in the store. and trying not to go into overtime. it's been exhausting but i kind of like being in charge of getting things done around there. i'm in the middle of making peanut butter and jelly cookies. they smell and will hopefully taste delicious. at least they're coming off the cookie sheet unlike the last bench i attempted. gareth didn't see any movies this weekend. last week's was zombieland. another one too bloody for me to see on the big screen. i'm excited about next week's new movie. where the wild things are. i'm going with my family to see it. on my only day off next week. i hope they figure out who's going to be in change soon. hopefully it will be a situation where i can ask for that raise. i think i deserve it. i miss vacation. hopefully i'll get another one soon.

cool

2009-10-02T08:59:00.000-07:00

the rest of the trip went well. there were lots of birds at the beach. and we got a nice sunset. we also went fishing on his dad's boat two nights in a row. the first night we were out for about five hours and they only caught about a dozen fish. the second we were only out about an hour but they caught about two dozen. no sharks though. they were dissapointed but i was alright with that. i'm both scared of and scared for them. we also went and played mini golf at night. it was much too hot to do anything but swim during the day. so it was quite a shock to come home the other evening and find it was sweater wether in virginia. i'm alright with that though. i'm working all weekend now. but i still have some paid time off so i'm hoping to take a few days off the end of the month and head to the mountains. that's my kind of vacation. i've also been looking into joining the local ymca. my favorite banker just joined and said she loves it. i need something to do when gareth's not around to get myself out of the house. and with my income it would only be twenty two dollars a month. i think it's worth it especially with winter coming. i won't be taking my turtle for walks anymore. not like that's much exercise. she laid another egg while we were gone. only three more to go.

away

2009-09-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

it's been a good trip so far. we went to a nature preserve yesterday. there wasn't much wildlife but lots plants in the mangroves. we went to the largest book store after. i got an old book about tracking animals. we've seen some movies this week. gareth had already reviewed district nine. he thought i'd like it but it really wasn't enjoyable for me. everyone else liked it thugh. we saw surrogates friday morning. it was prett decent. those aren't movies i'd normally see in theaters anyways. we actually went to a blockbuster last night. they wanted to see jaws but i convinced them to get something else that wouldn't scare me so much. so we got sunshine. which turned out to be pretty scary anyways. we should be heading to the beach later today. hopefully it won't be too sunny out. i got a bit too much sun yesterday. and a bit too much rain the other night. we went to busch gardens' howl-o-scream. erin and i had just gotten on the scrambler that no one else wanted to ride and it started pouring. we were soaked the rest of the night. but it was a lot of fun. we went in some haunted houses. i was the only one screaming. it doesn't take much to scare me. but gareth will hold my hand. i've had a good time just getting away.

positive

2009-09-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

i'm in florida. my first full day. it's beautiful out. but hot. i'm glad to see the sun though. we'd looked at the weather report before we came and it showed storms into next week. gareth's dad said some storms have been passing in the afternoon but yesterday's didn't even get us wet. we spent a few hours in the pool when we got here. playing monkey in the middle. it was a lot of fun. i didn't realize how much sun i was getting. it's just a little tan today but i was hurting last night. i had a really bad headache. i'm not positive it was the sun. i've been having them pretty often lately. just thought it was stress back home. but they've crept in on my vacation now. hopefully they won't stay. i'm the first guest up this morning. i'm glad i brought my computer. i'm hoping to get started at least on my alaska article. i finally got the green travel guide gareth ordered before we left. apparently my trip wasn't very environmentally friendly. but i can do things now that can help. including telling others how theirs can be. we didn't end up having a big family get together before i left. but gareth and i made the trip back home friday anyways for a dinner and a visit with my aunt. i like her insight in life. i think she's searching like me for something more than what meets the eye. but she has a very positive outlook on things. something i sometimes need to be reminded to have.

ok

2009-09-17T09:15:00.001-07:00

i didn't get the job at wachovia. i don't know why. they just sent an email saying i didn't. oh well. it was dissapointing but at least i got some job hunting experience. and i have good news at my store now. the lazy manager's finally leaving. and they're thinking of getting gareth's manager to manage our store as well as the one they're already managing. doesn't sound like a good idea but that means they'd need to keep me on as an assistant at our store. and even though i've been doing more than my share lately now it will be official so i could ask for the raise that was promised to me a month ago if i was just going to go to a busier store. sounds good to me. for now. i won't know what's really going on until i come back from vacation the end of the month. we're going to florida to visit gareth's dad with his brother and his brother's girlfriend for a week. i'm excited. they just bought a new house and it's right on the water... and has a screened in pool. it'll be nice to get some summer in just as fall's coming. budd laid another egg this morning. she was in her dry tank for a few days but wanted back in the water. so she's been in there for a few days and just popped one out this morning. four more to go. we're having another family get-together tomorrow. my aunt's from ny is in town so we're all getting together for a bbq at my parents' house. it seems like we get together a lot but i've barely been home this summer. so that should be nice. and everything's ok.

steps

2009-09-11T14:43:00.000-07:00

yesterday was a good day. i had my second interview with wachovia and i think it went quite well. i also went to my first horse rescue meeting and will hopefully be starting with them soon. that happy bubble was burst by my first customer this morning telling me to shut my mouth. between that and me almost going into overtime again this week because my manager's too lazy to do his job i'm quite ready to leave. at least i've finally taken the first steps in doing that. i had some strange news this week. budd my turtle laid an egg. budd that i've thought was a male all these years. i took her to the vets and they took an x-ray. she still has five eggs in her. they're not fertilized but they need to come out. so i've concocted a dry tank from pet store dirt and grass. hopefully she'll be comfortable enough to lay them on her own. she seems pretty content in there : ]

i still can't believe budd's a she. crazy stuff. we went to see a pretty good movie earlier this week. nine. gareth saw whiteout earlier today. said it wasn't so great but someone's already commented on it being a good review. i'm glad to see others are taking notice : ]

soon

2009-09-07T07:38:00.000-07:00

my interview went well. i have another one this week. but i'm not sure the job's going to work out. they said they don't think they can give me as many hours or as much money as i'm getting now. so i'll have to see the actual numbers before i make my decision. but it didn't sound that great. i thought that going to the beach would make me feel better about my job situation but i was stuck in a slump most of the time i was there. the weather kind of followed my mood too. it was windy and cold most of the time. it was nice seeing my dad and brother and his girlfriend though. and we made due with at least a lack of rain on those days. i should have my pictures up shortly. gareth couldn't come with me to the beach. he had a meeting with rva. they paid him well for the rest of the summer movies he'd done. and said they wanted him to continue doing any big movies that were released. so that's good news. he then went back home to fairfax to see friends and family and reviewed gamer. i came home from the beach and immediately started looking for jobs. applied at yahoo jobs for a dentist appointment assistant. capital one for... something. and virginia.gov for an office coordinator. made me feel a little better. i have a meeting with userl (united states equine rescue league) this week too. hopefully i can start helping them soon. i got to see my family again last night. we had three bdays in the extended smith family this week. so we all got together at cheesecake factory to celebrate. i was happy because we didn't have to go far to see everyone this time. gareth came so that was nice.

better

2009-08-29T09:47:00.001-07:00

the rest of this month has been much better. dad got orders to take off work for a few weeks and said he's enjoying his first taste of retirement. he's gone to va beach this weekend through next. i'll be joining him for a day next week. before i go i have an interview with wichovia. i'm nervous. i haven't had an interview in... five years? hopefully i'll do just fine. before i heard back from the bank i had an offer from my new district manager to change stores and get a raise. i said i'd take it but i'm hoping i don't have to if this works out. i have today and tomorrow off. my first actual weekend on the weekend in a very long time. but gareth works this morning and tomorrow night. i opened yesterday and we went to see taking wood stock last night. besides a completely nude scene by emile hirsch, getting to see dimitri martin's large nose on the big screen and an awesome tripping scene it didn't thrill me much. we might go see ponyo tonight. i was glad to miss out on his viewing of halloween II this weekend. that and inglourious basterds were much too bloody for my taste. i think these were the last of the summer movies for gareth to review. i hope they still want him to do reviews for them. or that he can find somewhere else to do them. i think he's done really well with them. especially being his first time. he's got a passion and a talent to go with it. i hope he has more ambition or maybe just luck than i've had with those things. but even if he doesn't i know we'll be just fine. we're happy and honest hard workers and i know we'll make it through whatever comes our way.

scary

2009-08-16T09:15:00.000-07:00

my dad had a heart attack. he's ok now but it's pretty terrifying getting the phone call that a loved one is in the hospital. especially after what my mom's been through. he left work not feeling well on thursday and stopped at an urgent care while driving home. he ended up at mary washington but they didn't know what was going on until friday morning. that's when i got the message that i should be there. i was on my way out the door to work so i called my half asleep manager and told him i wouldn't be in. gareth drove me there. he'd been up all night watching and reviewing district nine. it's nice having so many siblings in my family. especially when there's something wrong. most of us were there. my sister in seattle was there via text. we all waited a few hours for him to come out of the cath lab to learn whether he needed surgery or not. he had two blockages but they weren't as closed as moms so they were able to put stints in. we were so relieved to find out he didn't need surgery. we saw him shortly after. he was on morphine and hungry but in good spirits. we headed back to r'mond and i went in and closed so my manager didn't have to work a double. so that was all scary but had just about the best possible outcome. i have today off and i'm going to head home and either visit him there or at the hospital if he's still there. besides all that my week's been pretty uneventful. i applied at wachovia and was asked to complete an online questionnaire. they indicated that i passed and said a representative would be in contact with me shortly. it's been over a week. gareth almost quit this week. he was promoted two months ago to a shift lead. he's been leading shifts ever since but his pay raise hadn't gone through. they kept promising "it'll be on the next check" and saying he'd get a backpay check as well. he told his manager that if it wasn't on the one this week that he quit. unfortunately it was. we both need to get out of there. but it's hard to find something else working full time with everything else going on. we'll figure it out though. i saw sunshine cleaning last night. it's really good. and it has the saddest scene with an old woman who's husband has just passed. try and watch it without crying. i started welling up when i saw a preview with that scene in it afterwards. sometimes life is pretty sad. luckily it was just scary this time for me.

busy

2009-07-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

i've been opening every day this week. and they've cut our hours again so they've all been shifts by myself. with a ton to do. i'm glad that's over with. at least for a day. i've had my nights to myself since gareth's been gone. i got my alaska album all in order. ended up having to redo most of it. i'm still nowhere near done but at least what i have so far looks good now. our cable went out the other day. looks like we don't get free tv anymore. i've discovered gareth's adventures of pete and pete though and been watching some movies. the only one i'd recommend is the union and only to a certain audience. guess i don't have much to write about... i started writing that the other day and didn't end up posting it. it's been a busy week or so since. i just got finished working seven days straight. two of them being double shifts. only one of which i was scheduled for. bbuster's bugging me. while i was at the bank for them yesterday though the tellers ended up saying they were hiring and that i should apply. i'm going to look into that. i also talked to a regular customer about the va equine rescue league that he's a part of. apparently they're looking for someone to go around and take pictures of the horses. i'd love to be around horses again and be of some serveice with my camera. we'll see where all that leads. i had a picture of mine used for a website recently. it's on the right. not the greatest picture but kinda neat. i had my car worked on for the first time the other day. just an oil change but they said i needed new breaks. for like two hunded dollars. my brother in law was nice enough to do them for me for free yesterday. and my sister was nice enough to make me dinner. i got to see everyone at my mom's brunch the other weekend. that was nice. i was late as usual. got mom a travel pillow like the one she kept stealing from me on our trip. gareth and i saw funny people last weekend. it was really good. we're going to see gi joe tonight. not really looking forward to it but he agreed to seeing five hundred days of summer today too so i can't complain. too much.